Hassan Matar
December 10 - January 8, 2015
Grey Noise, Dubai
We are pleased to announce Lantian Xie's first solo presentation at Grey Noise, Dubai.
Hassan Matar is an exhibition of images, objects, and sounds encountered in Dubai. Each refers to a landmark or occasion; a hallway of birds at Le Meridien Garhoud or a late night at a nearby cafeteria. Some are imagined entirely.
Here, they describe a phantom place of waiting, aspiration (for belonging), and lese majeste.
The exhibition includes the following:
1. Home-delivery motorcycle parked outside.
2. Drawing of Chicago Beach Hotel eponymously titled.
3. Green wall, fluorescent light, Hassan’s ashtray.
4. Short-run reprints of Gamal Abdel Nasser’s 1955 Pan-Arab Nationalist manifesto—here, eponymously titled.
5. Golden Pheasant, lithograph by John Fabreau from original drawing by Daniel G. Elliot, 1950s.
6. Recording of a woman reading an excerpt from a Tagalog romance novel.
7. Something not listed here.
8. A number of styrofoam cups.
9. Excerpt from Wong Kar Wai’s Days of Being Wild, set to holding music from Hardees UAE home-delivery hotline (pressed to vinyl)—titled 600569000.
10. Footnote from text by Soleil Ho—not found in exhibition venue but included herewith:
"During a summer visit to his family’s house when we were both 13, I heard him slam the front door and run, bawling, to his mother. I remember peeking through a crack in his parents’ bedroom doorway as his agony filled the house from floor to ceiling. His friends had demanded that he read a sign that was written in Chinese, and then reacted with mock indignation when he told them he didn’t speak the language. When I mentioned this incident to him years later, he shrugged and told me that he couldn’t remember it at all."
About the Artist
b. 1988, Dubai, UAE / Lives and works in Dubai, UAE.
Lantian Xie makes images about Dubai. He is particularly interested in hotel lobbies, smuggling, Eat & Drink, and violent statecraft. Xie holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He also co-hosts a weekly programme on Dubai Eye 103.8FM and is editor-at-large at THE STATE.
press release pdf / view show