Comments on: Puppies and Kitties and Death Threats: Adel Abdessemed’s “Birth of Love” Cancelled at SFAI http://forwardretreat.wordpress.com/2008/03/31/adel-abdessemeds-birth-of-love-canceled/ <em>The voice of the intellect is a soft one, but it does not rest until it has gained a hearing.</em> Sun, 21 Dec 2008 13:10:44 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: Violet Mendonca http://forwardretreat.wordpress.com/2008/03/31/adel-abdessemeds-birth-of-love-canceled/#comment-337 Violet Mendonca Sun, 24 Aug 2008 20:18:30 +0000 http://forwardretreat.wordpress.com/?p=328#comment-337 I helped install the show. Adel lectured during the opening, which was also the 5th anniversary of the U.S. WAR on Iraq. Adel is from Algeria, which is a desolate, beautiful and in many ways an old world country, with a past riddled with colonial hypocricy and tragedy. This being said...David Zwirner was perhaps not authorized to disclose info, seeing as the work was made on the request and offer by curator Hou Hanru, as a way to engage this young artist that is in the middle of a fresh and inventive career. The videos were shot in a public market place in Mexico City, and were of animals being slaughtered for transport. The images of the animals tied to brick walls was reminiscent of scenes from the streets of Adel's home country, yet Adel engages with the west coast culture of this continent in a way that provokes, and distills us, on the westcoast, with a semblance of what life is like in another place, and it's insidious connection to our lives, in a local, or glocal sense. This was real art, dangerous, and without hesitation. I helped install the show. Adel lectured during the opening, which was also the 5th anniversary of the U.S. WAR on Iraq. Adel is from Algeria, which is a desolate, beautiful and in many ways an old world country, with a past riddled with colonial hypocricy and tragedy.

This being said…David Zwirner was perhaps not authorized to disclose info, seeing as the work was made on the request and offer by curator Hou Hanru, as a way to engage this young artist that is in the middle of a fresh and inventive career. The videos were shot in a public market place in Mexico City, and were of animals being slaughtered for transport. The images of the animals tied to brick walls was reminiscent of scenes from the streets of Adel’s home country, yet Adel engages with the west coast culture of this continent in a way that provokes, and distills us, on the westcoast, with a semblance of what life is like in another place, and it’s insidious connection to our lives, in a local, or glocal sense.

This was real art, dangerous, and without hesitation.

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