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M+, Hong Kong, © Hassan Khan
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South Galleries, 221
Hassan Khan 哈桑．漢
Jewel 寶石
2010
Jewel opens with flashing lights that gradually transform into the form of an anglerfish. The fish swims in a sea of darkness before transforming again into a pattern of lights. Music accompanies the movement of the fish and its metamorphosis. The camera then zooms out to reveal two men dancing beside an illuminated speaker. The music becomes shaabi, a popular genre with roots in the Egyptian working class. Hassan Khan composed the soundtrack for this work, and he is known for his performances of electronic music incorporating elements of shaabi. The depiction of two men dancing to music from a speaker is a restaging of a scene the artist encountered on a street in Cairo. Placing contemporary popular music in parallel with a prehistoric species of fish creates an uncanny correspondence between the two sets of imagery, suggesting the transformation of culture and nature over extremely long periods of time while nevertheless remaining enigmatic.
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