Shireen Taweel

Making her exhibition debut in Aotearoa New Zealand, Shireen Taweel is the Dunedin Public Art Gallery’s International Visiting Artist for 2024. Based in Warrane Sydney, Taweel is a multi-disciplinary research-led artist whose work considers the histories and futurisms of collective space, materiality, and cultural practice. Her most recent work looks at the influence of the celestial navigation technologies of Arab astronomy on the future movement of people through migration and pilgrimage. Arriving in Ōtepoti Dunedin on 1 September 2024, Taweel’s time in Aotearoa continued a methodology of research, navigation, and travel, laid down during her pilgrimage across the Australian continent from mid-June to mid-July 2024. The relationship between the two pilgrimage sites is carried by the exhibition title, with 5364 reflecting the nautical miles between Ōtepoti and the points of pilgrimage across the Australian continent, which ended on the west coast.

During the residency period, Taweel undertook a performative pilgrimage that started in Ōtepoti and moved north-west across the South Island. Within the exhibition, this journey is documented through a new moving image work, three navigational devices (quadrant, astrolabe, and compass), and a set of copper engraved prints. Together, this new body of work asks us to reflect on the power of cumulative observation and our own relationships to pilgrimage, whether it be cultural, spiritual, or informed by the practicalities of traversing whenua. Guided by the careful tracking of the night sky, 5364 nocturne speaks to how the continuing contributions of the Arab sciences can produce alternative futurisms for space migration.

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Nāia ko tana kōkuhuka whakaaturaka ki Aotearoa, ko Shireen Taweel te Rika Toi Torotoro ā-Ao o 2024 ki te Whare Toi Tūmatanui o Ōtepoti. Mai i Warrane Sydney, he rika toi arahina e te rakahau, he pūkeka rau hoki a Taweel, ka āta whakaarohia te tāhuhu kōrero me te aka whakamua o te wāhi kiritōpū, te whakamahika o te papaka me te tikaka ahurea anō hoki. Ko tāhana mahi nō mua tata nei ka tirohia te awe o kā hakarau tātai whetū o te mahi kōkōraki o te ao Ārapa ki te nukuhaka o te takata, te heke atu, te haereka tapu atu hoki. I tae ki Ōtepoti i te 1 o Hepetema 2024, rite tou tana whai i te rakahau, i te mahi whakatere me te pōkai whenua i a ia i Aotearoa, ko ēnei mea i whakatakotoria i tana haereka tapu ki te whenua rahi o Ahitereiria mai i te puku o Hune ki te puku o Hūrae 2024. Ko te honoka ki waeka i kā wāhi haereka tapu e rua ka kawea e te ikoa o te whakaaturaka, i te mea 5364 maero kaumoana i waeka i Ōtepoti me kā wāhi i tau atu ai ia i tana haereka tapu ki te whenua rahi o Ahitereiria, i oti i te tai hauauru. 

I te wā tou o tana noho, i puta atu a Taweel ki tētahi haereka tapu whakaaturaka i tīmata ki Ōtepoti, ā, i nuku ki te hauāuru-mā-raki o Te Waipounamu. Ki roto i tēnei whakaaturaka, ka tuhia tēnei haereka ki tētahi mahi neke-ata hou, ki kā pūrere whakatere e toru (te hauwhā porowhita, te mahere whetū, me te kāpehu), me tētahi huika hārauka kapa. Mā te hui tahi ka uia tātau e ēnei whakaemika toi ki te huritaohia te mana o te tirohaka tapeke me te tuituika ki ō mātau ake haereka tapu, ahakoa he haereka ahurea, he haereka wairua, he haereka rānei ko whakamāramahia ake i kā mahi o te nuku i te whenua. E arahina ana e te āta tātai i te Ika o te Raki, ka kōrerohia a 5364 nocturne ki te ara e taea ai e kā tukuka tou o te pūtaiao Ārapa te tūtoko atu i tētahi whakaaro rerekē mō te heke, ā tōhona wā, ki te ao tuaraki.

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For publication enquiries, please contact Lauren Gutsell: lauren.gutsell@dcc.govt.nz

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A Dunedin Public Art Gallery Visiting Artist Programme, supported by Creative New Zealand Toi Aotearoa.

Exhibition partner

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View a conversation with artist Shireen Taweel and curator Lauren Gutsell, click the following link —