Qeu Meparishvili and Hussein Shikha at E.A. Shared Space, Tbilisi

Artists: Qeu Meparishvili, Hussein Shikha

Exhibition title: A Chimera Memorial

Venue: E.A. Shared Space, Tbilisi, Georgia

Date: October 22 – November 24, 2024

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and E.A. Shared Space, Tbilisi

E.A. Shared Space is thrilled to invite you to a duo exhibition by Qeu Meparishvili and Hussein Shikha.The practices otherwise distinct from one another, come together through thinking, methodology and interest in their, at times shared, but mostly different cultural mythologies. Both the artist seems to be intrigued both by their immediate and collective past, generational trauma, collective memory and cultural histories and find shelter and grounding in history in order to imagine future, through reflecting the present. Like a thread of history, the threads created by the artists create a complex inter-connected narrative.

Hussein Shikha’s work especially stands out with a futuristic vision, while using material such as hologram, digital language and tapestry, historically connected to digital media. Based on an extensive research into the history of his immediate family and questions of displacement, he borrows the story-telling method of the almost vanishing practice of carpet and tapestry-making of Southern Iraq and through the process of digitizing and the use of machine-made production he re-creates the new stories of his own imagining.The signs and symbols on his work stem from the contemporary popular culture, early first-wave digital games to Mesopotamian symbols and characters, which reinterpreted are being put into the new context of the contemporary moment in Iraq, giving paths to imagining the future. Carpets, traditionally meant for storytelling, have been reflecting history for centuries. Often showing the glory of the culture, what could the carpets tell today, if asked? What would the signs and symbols be, if left to their own devices in the contemporary moment?

Meparishvili’s interest in Georgian and Caucasian opus and antique mythology is inherent to her new series of sculpture. Focusing on psychology of a (stray) dog, Meparishvili creates a navigation into the space of the exhibition based on her interpretation of a choreography created by a dog. As characteristic to dogs, Meparishvili dives into her subconscious and by following her associations only recreates fragmented moments of memories into her immediate past, as well as, collective memory. Meparishvili is interested in the stray dogs’ anarchistic style of navigating the space, the city creating independent to the normative, roads of their own. Here Meparishvili, connects this resistance to the normative behavior to the anti-colonial thinking. Finding solace and freedom in wilderness of a dog, Meparishvili’s sculptural bodies question the everyday of a human, suggesting following the uncultivated subsciences for creating new paths towards the future.

Presented questions, such as: subjective mapping, placemaking and the formation of counter-hegemonic narratives further deepen the exploration, highlighting the delicate balance between preservation and transformation.By presenting the distinct yet interconnected body of works, A Chimera Memorial reveals a rich tapestry of artistic dialogues that resonate with the complexities of contemporary society. Through their respective explorations of materiality, symbolism, and cultural heritage, the artists offer compelling insights into the transformative power of art in navigating and negotiating boundaries—whether physical, cultural, or symbolic.