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.