Lawrence Abu Hamdan:
“Natq” at Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut

Exhibition review for 4 Columns, September 27, 2019

Excerpt

Natq, the title of Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s largest exhibition to date (and first solo exhibition in Beirut, where he has lived for several years), might be translated as pronunciation, vocalization, the physical act of speaking, or, according to the press release, speaking the truth. It’s not surprising this latter, less-common meaning would be significant for the British-Lebanese artist. He is perhaps best known for his work with Forensic Architecture, with whom he has conducted high-profile audio investigations into restrictive asylum policies in Europe and state violence in Syria and Palestine/Israel. (The research agency is led by Eyal Weizman at Goldsmiths, University of London, where Abu Hamdan received a PhD in 2017.) His sonic analysis of Syria’s Saydnaya prison, created in collaboration with “ear witness” survivors (who were forcibly prevented from seeing their surroundings while imprisoned), enabled Forensic Architecture to reconstruct the hidden site’s spatial contours and key incidents of abuse for an Amnesty International report that concluded the prison administered mass torture and execution.

A finalist for this year’s Turner Prize, Abu Hamdan shares Forensic Architecture’s keen attunement to material traces of violence and employs similar techniques of data analysis and visualization. But his own practice—whether audio documentaries, video installations, lecture-performances, or photographic prints—is marked by a greater emphasis on the poetics of evidence. This is true even when the artist draws on research conducted with Forensic Architecture for solo works, as he does throughout Natq with Saydnaya-related material; he transmutes legal inquiries into more open-ended explorations of the politics of sound and the aesthetics of information.