Fathia Mohidin Selected works
What is my potential? 3D scan, my body. 2017- In 1792 Mary Wollstonecraft wrote that women cannot achieve recognition of their rights without having access to physical activities that enables them to become strong and resilient. What is my potential? is an ongoing physical investigation which seeks to explore my potential and what I can become, as well as the black sportswoman as a transgressing individual. In the beginning of my process I 3D scanned my body, a documentation that will continue throughout my physical investigation.
New Geometries 3 channel video installation, loop, sound, monitors on tripods and steel structure, gym mat, pilates ball, variable dimensions. 2017 New Geometries is a video installation which explores the black woman body in relation to sports and performance. It examines physical empowerment and societal norms of femininity and whiteness. Link to videos: Louise (4.5 min excerpt) 8:21 min in full length https://vimeo.com/253921991 password: NEWGEO Ingrid (4.5 min excerpt) 6:56 min in full length https://vimeo.com/253931487 password: NEWGEO New Geometries 4:16 min https://vimeo.com/221138841 password: NEWGEO Still from New Geometries
Installation view at BA show
Installation view at Mossutställningar
You are (not) lying 2016 This collage was created for the Side Room pamphlet vol. 6, as a response to a conversation with Dj Mayounah, which was the subject for this number. 1. First of all, when a woman finds that she has to say I am not a woman writer or I am not the woman president of Harvard, it is never a general claim, never a philosophical maxim. (If it were, the statement would be patently absurd.) It is always in response to a provocation, usually to someone who has tried to use her sex or gender against her. Such statements, in short, are a specific kind of defensive speech act: when we hear such words, therefore, we should look for the provocation. Not long ago, I heard a radio show in which a caller (a man) claimed that all the talk about race and gender in the Democratic primaries was absolutely irrelevant: We are choosing a president, he said, not a race or a gender. The lesson we should learn from Beauvoir is that in a sexist (or racist) society, the result of such well-intentioned claims is to force women and blacks, and other raced minorities, to eliminate their gendered (or raced) subjectivity, or in other words to masquerade as some kind of generic universal human being, in ways that devalue their actual experiences as embodied human beings in the world. The option, which is to run for office as the black or the woman candidate will cut them off from what Beauvoir calls the universal, the general category, and hence imprison them in their gender (or race). [...] There is no correct solution to this dilemma. All we can do, is to hope that we have the presence of mind to look for the provocation, to show others that there was a provocation, which means pointing out that we have just been placed in a quintessentially sexist dilemma, and then as far as possible refuse to choose between two equally hopeless options, which is precisely what Drew Faust did. Toril Moi, I Am Not a Woman Writer: About Women, Literature and Feminist Theory Today, Feminist Theory 9.3 (2008), 259-71. http://www.torilmoi.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/259-271-095850-moi.pdf 2. Mara Lee, 2016.
Sad Event 2015-2016 Sad Event is organized together with Amal Alhaag, Maria Guggenbichler and Natalia Rebelo and took place in Amsterdam and Stockholm. It is a one-day event where we invite people to listen to sad music by invited DJs, eat sad food, drink sad cocktails and sing sad karaoke. The event, as a space for sadness, was shaped through questions around personal sadness, public space and productivity.
sadness666 2016 This publication was made together with Natalia Rebelo for the last Sad Event held at Side Room. It contains contributions from Makda T Embaie, Maria Guggenbichler, Ar Parmacek, Natalia Rebelo, sad_combo, Cara Tolmie, Joline Uvman, Hodan Warsame and Felicia von Zweigbergk.
Image from the publication made under my name sad_combo
Swedish Lines PVC tape, dimensions varaible, sound, loop. 2016 Swedish lines seeks to explore the idea of belonging and affinity within sport, a well as its role in the creation of the nation and national identity. The work consists of a running track in blue and yellow, the same color as the Swedish flag, which starts at the entrance of the gallery and exits at the back. A starting shot goes of every 50 seconds.
Installation view at Galleri Mejan
Mothers made of steel Steel bars, dumb bells, polyester, glass. 2016 Mothers made of steel is an installation inspired by frequently used expressions concerning strength, such as made of steel and solid as a rock. In an attempt to materialize these expressions the work seeks to investigate the interplay between materials and objects that are linked to ideas of strength.
7 heads Sound, loop, cardboard boxes, speakers. 2015 This sound installation is a collaboration between Edith Hammar and Jin Mustafa. Based on both Switzerland and Sweden s official status as neutral in warfare. The work examines subjective opinions on neutrality in various everyday situations. Seven speakers were place in the room and each speaker represented one voice, which together formed a conversation. 7 heads was created for the exhibition Morgenröte, aurora borealis and Levantin: into your solar plexus, at Kunsthalle Bern.
Installation view at Kunsthalle Bern
The Bucket Punishment Video, 60.00 min. 2014 The bucket punishment is a punishment where you have to fill a bucket with water with a table spoon. The punishment was given to my cousin at her high school. In this video I am performing the punishment. Link to video: The Bucket Punishment (5 min excerpt) https://vimeo.com/255169317 password: shortbucket Still from The Bucket Punishment