DARK CONTINENT: SEMIRAMIS / TURNER CONTEMPORARY MARGATE 2019

DC: Semiramis is an epic and episodic project that has come to define the last five years of Shani’s practice. A series of works with interlinked stories and mythologies, DC envisions a world neither completely divorced from our own, nor tied to our own history, or our future.

The work is made up of multiple characters which explore mythical and real women in an expanded adaptation of Christine de Pizan's 1405 pioneering proto-feminist book, The Book of the City of Ladies. Shani uses the structure of an allegorical city of women to explore ‘feminine’ subjectivity and experience, through a gothic/science-fiction lens. Adopting Pizans’ medieval conception of history, where historical events, fictions and myths are entwined, Dark Continent draws upon a host of references, tropes and characters from disparate sources, creating an elaborate world, outside of time and beyond patriarchal limits.

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Jointly commissioned by Glasgow International, The Tetley, and Nottingham Contemporary, DC: Semiramis brings together the full roster of these 12 characters, to create an epic tableaux vivant. At Glasgow International and Nottingham Contemporary the striking sculptural set was activated over a number of days with performances, each focusing on a different character from the series. At The Tetley, the work took the form of installations comprising an immersive set alongside a complete archive of the Dark Continent project, including video documentation of all twelve performances, texts, posters and a radio play.