Previous Page  88-89 / 96 Next Page
Information
Show Menu
Previous Page 88-89 / 96 Next Page
Page Background

88 Earth and Elsewhere | Contemporary Works from the Collection

Earth and Elsewhere | Contemporary Works from the Collection 89

Sharif Waked

/ Palestine/Israel b.1974 /

To be continued . . .

(production still) 2009 / SD video transferred to Digital Betacam, colour, stereo, 41:33 minutes / Purchased 2010

with a special allocation from the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation

Shar i f Waked

To be continued . . .

2009

In

To be continued . . .

Sharif Waked replicates the codes and

conventions of a martyrdom video — the recording of a suicide

bomber’s last testimony prior to carrying out an operation.

The text read however, is revealed to be

The Thousand and

One Night

s, in which a young woman named Shahrazad avoids

execution by cunningly retelling a series of historical tales,

comedies, tragedies, poems and legends to King Shahrayar.

Enraptured by Shahrazad’s unfolding stories, the king is forced to

postpone her execution so he can hear the conclusion that never

comes, and, as a consequence, Shahrazad delays the moment of

death and saves herself. Like Shahrazad, Waked’s suicide bomber

delays his mission, and his death, through an endless process of

narration. By re-contextualising

The Thousand and One Nights

,

Waked encourages a dialogue with the literary and artistic

heritages of Islamic cultures and unfolding questions about

the future.