Aphra Shemza
shemza.digital #6, 2021
Interactive light sculpture
2.1 x 0.5 x 0.5 m
Recycled Green Cast Acrylic, LED and bespoke circuit
Programming by Jamie Howard
The shemza.digital project is based on the work of Aphra Shemza’s grandfather, the well known British/Pakistani painter Anwar Jalal Shemza. In the last 10 years there has been a rethinking of British Art History and migrant artists like Anwar Jalal Shemza are being given the recognition that they deserve. In shemza.digital Aphra Shemza has used participatory art as a way to highlight Anwar Shemza’s work to the public.
In shemza.digital #6, the viewer is invited to interact with a column borrowed from Shemza’s City Wall series. Here Aphra Shemza has turned Shemza’s 2D concept which he based on Islamic architecture into something physical again that can be felt and experienced by the viewer. The ultrasonic sensors of shemza.digital #6, measure the visitor’s distance from the work and on approaching the archway the viewer’s presence makes the lights illuminate, enticing the viewer to interact with the piece. The viewers’ physical interactivity turns them into active, connected participants and this not only further develops the work but creates it: the closer they get, the more they see. Shemza.digital #6 embraces notions of performativity, dialogue and interchange.
The column motif was designed by students in Aphra Shemza’s Co-creation workshops and the artist has taken this as inspiration to create this piece.
Find more about the project here.
In shemza.digital #6, the viewer is invited to interact with a column borrowed from Shemza’s City Wall series. Here Aphra Shemza has turned Shemza’s 2D concept which he based on Islamic architecture into something physical again that can be felt and experienced by the viewer. The ultrasonic sensors of shemza.digital #6, measure the visitor’s distance from the work and on approaching the archway the viewer’s presence makes the lights illuminate, enticing the viewer to interact with the piece. The viewers’ physical interactivity turns them into active, connected participants and this not only further develops the work but creates it: the closer they get, the more they see. Shemza.digital #6 embraces notions of performativity, dialogue and interchange.
The column motif was designed by students in Aphra Shemza’s Co-creation workshops and the artist has taken this as inspiration to create this piece.
Find more about the project here.
About the artist:
Aphra Shemza
www.aphrashemza.com | @aphrashemza
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Aphra Shemza is a UK-based multimedia artist. She is the granddaughter of the well-known abstract painter Anwar Jalal Shemza. Inspired by her grandfather, her work explores Modernism, her Islamic cultural heritage, sustainable practice and creating art for all. As an artist and activist, she finds ambitious ways to fuse methodologies from the past with new innovations in technology to imagine what the role of art could be in the future.
Shemza has been commissioned by and worked with: Barbican, Tate Britain, V&A, National Gallery X, British Library, Arts Council of England, Canary Wharf Group, Louis Roederer, Save The Children, Morley College, Winter Lights Festival, The Other Art Fair, Electronic Virtual Arts Conference, Ars Electronica Festival, Xi’an Maker Faire, The Courtauld Institute, Times, Telegraph, London Live, Time Out, FAD Magazine, GQ, Tower Eastbourne, Poole Museum, Norden Farm, Watermans, NCCA, Bournemouth University, Kensington + Chelsea Art Week, Coventry City Council, Art in Flux, Woodcraft Folk, DINA, The Margate School and The Festival of Curiosity. |
