Ab-Anbar is pleased to present "Jabberwocky" group exhibition of international artists "Matthew Humphreys, Christine Kettaneh, Mira Avarzamani, Patricia Pisanelli, Nooshin Farhid, Jakob Rowlinson and Yi Dai."
Jabberwocky |ˈdʒabəˌwɒki| is a nonsensical poem written by Lewis Carroll taken from his book, Through the Looking Glass, which was written in 1871 as a sequel to Alice in Wonderland. The plot centers on Alice's discovery of a book written in an intelligible language and today, Jabberwocky is lauded as one of the greatest nonsense poems ever written in the English language due to its playful, whimsical and witty use of words.
Taking this poem as a point of departure, the exhibition Jabberwocky explores performativity of dialogue and language through the works of seven international artists. These artist's preoccupation with language position it as a self-analysing structure, a source of political, metaphysical and even sexual emancipation. Through a mix of high and low-brow culture, ribald humor and esoteric discourse, this exhibition also seeks to address 'the voice' as a political act whilst considering the materiality and origin of language, as well as transcultural and trans-disciplinary questions of language. Through a selection of sculptures, artist books, drawings, installations, performances, poetry and videos, spectators are able to experience the emotional, social and political potential of language and its cognition.`