Untitled
Jasem Alsanea
Installation & short film
2024/2025
Failaka is a place that is imbeded with such imense historical enegry that beautifully bridges my themes of lost histories, haunting, post-war trauma, and mythology. In my work, I usually weave these elements through hyper-realistic installations of Kuwaiti "myths" that have suffered true historical fates. With my residencey at Failaika I would like to explore the myth of Bu-Darya Further. In my portfolio/Website you will find an installation I have done regarding this Myth; I would like the chance to bring the concepts of this piece into a short film, using Failaka as my setting. I am enamored with the lost histories of the Island, the Falchawi tribes that had to abandon their home, i'd like to answer some questions about what abandonment means . The concepts of water, mythology, post-war, and loss are all at play within my work but also within Failaka as an entity; and I would be honored to encapsulate them in a short film.
Previous projects
Hmarat Al Gaylah حمارة القايلة A Dana in the Desert 6’ x 6’ x 2’ Silicone, Wax, Fabric, Hair, Blood, Pearl, Beads, Plaster, Pigments 2024 This installation draws upon the Kuwaiti mythology of Hmarat Al-Gaylah. Through oral stories and symbolic imagery I explore the aftermaths of post-war reverberations. In this artwork I thought a lot about the landmines left in the Kuwaiti desert - that was once sea- The Gulf War, western calculations, and products of economy. An implanted grain of sand turns into a pearl.
Bū-Daryā بو درياه A Ripple From 1991 13’ x 9’ x 1’ Silicone, Plastic, Oil, Foam, Blood Fish Water, Hair, Jewels, Seashells, Pearls 2023 This artwork uses pre-colonial Khaleeji mythology to draw relations between the historical pearl-diving economy in Kuwait to the current oil-production economy. This artwork aims to address oral “fictional” narrative histories and their co-existence with the histories of the 1991 Iraqi invasion oil spill into the Kuwaiti-Arabian Gulf sea.
Jasem Alsanea
Jasem is a Kuwaiti based artist that uses oral stories and mythologies from the Gulf, contextualizing them with the fears of post-war memories and collective violence. Jasem draws patterns and creates motifs to form physically and conceptually maximalist artworks, giving the myths new narratives born from new fears.
Jasem’s residency will aim to revive some of the lost myths of the ancient civilizations of Failaka. He plans to give alternative narratives to the myths by centering displacement’s relationship to haunting.
Jasem recently graduated with a BFA in Sculpture from the Rhode Island school of Design, and has exhibited at numerous galleries and museums Internationally.
