Sabah Al-Hachami

Detroit, Michigan
(Iraq)

Driving While Black Becomes Flying While Brown

Visible Collective/Naeem Mohaiemen work on projects that look at hyphenated identities and security panic. The majority of detainees in recent paranoia times are from the invisible underclass - shadow citizens who drive taxis, deliver food, clean tables, and sell fruit, coffee, and newspapers. The only time we "see" them is when we glance at the license in the taxi partition, or the vendor ID card. When detained, they cease to exist in the consciousness. The impulse to create an insider-outsider dynamic with "loyalty" overtones has a long pedigree: WWI incarceration of German-Americans; 1919 detention of immigrants in Anarchist bomb scare; WWII internment of Japanese-Americans; execution of the Rosenbergs; HUAC "red scare"; infiltration of Deacons For Defense and Black Panthers; and the rise of the Minutemen.

CURRENT INTERVENTIONS
Dec 1-Jan 6: Data Aesthetics (curated by Stephen Wright), Gallery Nova (WHW), Zagreb.
Dec 15: Fear of Flying, Fast Futures: Asian Video Art (curated by Johan Pijnapel), NC Performing Arts, Mumbai.

PAST SHOWS
New York: 2006 Whitney Biennial (Wrong Gallery); Queens Museum (Fatal Love); Artist Space (When Artists Say We); Cooper Union School of Art (Knock @ The Door); , Tenement Museum (Above Ground),Broadway Gallery (Rule of Law); Rubin Museum; Brecht Forum; Asian American Arts Center (Detained
Belgrade: BelefNet
Amsterdam: Amsterdam Film Experience
Karlskrona: Karlskrona Military Museum
Liverpool: FACT Museum
Manchester: Futuresonic
Dhaka: Public library
Houston: Project Row House (How Does It Feel To Be A Problem?)
San Francisco:
Yerba Buena Center for Arts
Irvine: UC Irvine Gallery
Los Angeles: Artwallah
Various cities: e-Flux video library

ARTIST TALKS
New York: Location One; Cooper Union School of Art (Art & Censorship); 16 Beaver Group (Continental Drift, w/ Brian Holmes)
Frankfurt: Staedelschule (Politics of Image)
Stuttgart: Theater der Welt w/ Walid Raad
Berlin: KunstWerke: lecture by Natasa Petresin as part of e-Flux
Beirut: Home Works III
Stockholm: Finnish Embassy
Helsinki: Kiasma Museum; Finlandia Hall
London: Performance Studies International
Manchester: Whitworth Gallery (Faith & Identity talk)
Dhaka: Bengal Gallery
Delhi: Sarai Center/RAQS Media Collective
Seoul: Asia 21
Ithaca: Cornell University (Is Your Gatorade Breeding Terrorists)
Chicago: Mess Hall
Amherst: U Mass Amherst