Dialogue
Albert L Refiti (architect and academic); John Clang (artist)
Moderators: Amal Khalaf (Director, Cubitt, and Curator at Large, Serpentine, both London, and Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry co-curator); Megan Tamati-Quennell (curator of modern and contemporary Māori and Indigenous art and Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry co-curator)
A conversation between Sāmoan architect and academic Albert L Refiti and artist John Clang, Time, Space and Relationships is moderated by Sharjah Biennial 16 co-curators Amal Khalaf and Megan Tamati-Quennell. For Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry, Refiti and Clang present works that include ancestral forms of knowledge, inherited notions and ceremony. This discussion will focus on the forms of knowledge with which they each work as well as the connections and the divergences between their practices. Refiti’s ‘field notes’ or ‘cosmograms’ adopt the Sāmoan concept of vā as structured in Sāmoan cosmology or Vānimonimoni. Clang works with the technique of zi wei dou (紫微斗数)—a metaphysical philosophy dating back to imperial China—to forecast events in the life of invited participants and illuminate insights and challenges.