A recent graduate from Concordia University with an MFA in intermedia arts, Montr\u00e9al-based artist Ayam Yaldo was on the hunt for a studio space. Adamant that her work should not permeate her home, she settled on this small yet charming studio space, which she shares with four other fine arts graduates. Upon entering her space, we are met with four silhouettes of feet and twenty-one creatures\u200a\u2014\u200ahalf insect, half embryo\u200a\u2014\u200amade of clay, carefully laid flat to dry on the table before being fired for the first time in the kiln. Right now, they are at their most vulnerable. A small brush in hand, Yaldo meticulously dusts the sculptures, which she affectionately refers to as her \u201cgirls.\u201d But there is more coming. On the floor, covered by sheets of newspaper, are another girl and two feet; the clay is still humid and malleable. She eagerly shows me her workstation: a dirty, textile-covered wood plank that serves as a flat surface for working the clay. Nearby are a small bowl filled with water to smooth the clay, a rolling pin, and various sizes of metal-wire brushes, sculpting utensils, and dainty brushes, reminiscent of an archaeologist\u2019s toolkit.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Archaeology<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
More than a mere methodological borrowing, archaeology is central to Yaldo\u2019s practice. In her more recent works, Notes from Home<\/em> (2019) and Impossible Sites<\/em> (2021), she creates multilayered arrangements of artefacts, 3D-printed objects, videos, and performance, playing up the aesthetic of an archaeological excavation. In Notes from Home<\/em>, viewers are greeted with shovels, buckets, measuring tapes, pots, bowls, and ceramic sculptures of water vessels referencing ancient Sumerian culture, all laid out on the floor. On the backdrop is a projection telling a tale of destruction, presenting, in turn, fixed images of Mesopotamian votive statues with wide-open eyes and a video of monumental ziggurat ruins superimposed with war footage and sounds of sirens blasting and explosions resounding. Yaldo performs among the objects and in front of the video, mimicking the postures of the statues and later ascending the stairs of the ziggurat; her body binds all the elements together. Impossible Sites<\/em> proceeds from the same accumulation of multimedia signifiers. Again, ceramic sculptures, mounds of sand, 3D-printed figurines, essential oils, and a single channel video: the assemblage of objects expands the video into the physical space. As its title indicates, the aim of Impossible Sites <\/em>is to reconstruct a Middle Eastern heritage that has been lost, destroyed, or displaced through years of war and US occupation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
In Iraq, where Yaldo is from, there is strong emphasis on archaeological finds as cementing national identity and pride. The government references these artefacts as undeniable proof of a grandiose past, one that bleeds into the present, all the while holding the promise of an equally grandiose future. Yaldo comments, \u201cGrowing up during the Gulf War and under US sanctions was a dire economic trial for many people, the government would reinstate the history of our ancestors with pride and joy, that of great inventions and accomplishments! Setting us apart from other civilizations, I think that was a way for people to cope with the immediate harsh realities they were living in.\u201d Although she sees this discourse as blatant ideological propaganda relentlessly pushed by the Iraqi government, one can\u2019t help but feel some of the tenderness that she displays when she interacts with the artefacts and ruins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Symbols<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Having emigrated from Baghdad to Detroit with her family when she was twelve, Yaldo has developed a fascination with objects, especially those she was denied. This uprooting forced her to be selective about which objects to bring\u200a\u2014\u200akeepsakes imbued with highly symbolic meaning\u200a\u2014\u200aand which to leave behind. In a war context in which political opinions have to remain firmly contained in the private space, symbols and metaphors become the only way for private discussions to seep into the public realm, undetected. Yaldo remembers, \u201cGrowing up in Baghdad, Iraq, in the nineties under dictatorship, when most artists, poets, theatre plays, and even schools resorted to using symbolic language as decoys to avoid spying, repercussions, and persecution by the regime. So, it\u2019s intuitive for me to insert meaning into objects or to use methods to express something indirectly and assign specific roles to them.\u201d \u201cEven as a kid,\u201d she adds, \u201cI had to learn to use coded language and become a little actor, and I learned very early the separation between public and private, literal and symbolic.<\/em>\u201d Her early works\u200a\u2014\u200amore meticulously curated, more pared down\u200a\u2014\u200atestify to this imperative to speak metaphorically. From a pomegranate hinting at the Qur\u2019an in \u0631\u0645\u0627\u0646<\/strong> : The Unfolding History Past and Present<\/em> (2015), to a tomato symbolizing Middle Eastern cuisine in Tomato Juice <\/em>(2016), to the rope, symbol for Xerxes, king of the Achaemenian Empire, in Performing to the Sound of the Wind<\/em> (2018), her corpus is riddled with enigmatic representations for the viewers to decipher. Firmly staying away from creating didactic works, her aim, in relying on symbols, is also to lighten otherwise difficult subjects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Body<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
A recurring symbol throughout Yaldo\u2019s practice is her own body, which she perceives as a vessel or a container that encompasses gestures, memories, and histories. Her body gives and takes, cares for the objects that she includes in her artworks, and is all the while deeply imprinted by their stories and meanings. For example, the figure of the basket carrier returns time and time again, in different forms, in her corpus. She recalls being fascinated by Iraqi women carrying baskets filled with goods on their heads while seeming to glide on the city pavement. The basket carrier is also a Mesopotamian icon often represented in small figurines (featured in Notes from Home<\/em>) that could be anachronously read as querying the labouring body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
The video performance L\u2019antichambre<\/em> (2018) showcases Yaldo mechanically cleaning a home through repetitive motions. Functioning as a critic of the hardships of cleaning inflicted on immigrant women\u2019s bodies, she asks, whose bodies are at work and what type of work is required of them? As a pandemic-born artwork, Interiors<\/em> (2020) contrasts starkly with L\u2019antichambre<\/em>. In this video performance, the body is apathetic, lingering, tired. In true Oblomovian fashion, Yaldo remembers \u201cfeeling the motionlessness of what seemed like perpetual waiting and boredom,<\/em>\u201d a boredom conducive to reverie and unbridled imagination. Slumped on a sofa, the body is anything but at work. It is, rather, in a state of surrender to its surroundings, disappearing into the immediate environment and becoming an undistinguishable part of it. To this point, Yaldo has been experimenting with the green screen as a device that allows her body to travel to otherwise inaccessible environments, conjuring reconfigured realities, roaming through and excavating the vestiges of the internet. The body, digital and impossible spaces, and artefacts all work in a co-creating motion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
The \u201cgirls\u201d that Yaldo is currently working on are part of her recent artwork titled Athar<\/em>\u200a\u2014\u200aan Arabic word that translates to \u201ctraces,\u201d \u201cremnants,\u201d or \u201cartefacts.\u201d The filial linkage between the sculptures and the artist goes beyond mere endearment; the very shapes of the \u201cgirls\u201d proceed from a video still in which she takes up a crouching position in front of a video projection. She printed the still and traced the contours of her body, and then translated the results into clay, creating the intriguing \u201cgirls\u201d and turning herself into a literal neo-artefact. \u201cI look at artefacts,\u201d she comments, \u201cas displaced objects, similar to displaced people who reside in different environments than their places of origin, and how they cope with or integrate into those new environments.\u201d Whimsical, messy, unsettled, impractical, political, Yaldo\u2019s practice engages difficult subjects in a playful manner. With a solo exhibition at Gallery Franz Kaka (Toronto) in 2023 and a studio residency at the Fonderie Darling (Montr\u00e9al) from 2023 to 2026, she is eager to showcase her most recent work for a larger audience to enjoy. \u201cI think about my viewers as guests to a dinner party that I\u2019ve prepared with varying courses; some dishes they may be trying for the first time, so I want to share new flavours and hope that they\u2019d be open to it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
Ayam Yaldo, Jo\u00eblle Dub\u00e9<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":186375,"template":"","categories":[887],"numeros":[6052],"disciplines":[],"statuts":[],"checklist":[],"auteurs":[938],"artistes":[6391],"thematiques":[],"type_chronique":[510],"class_list":["post-186388","chronique","type-chronique","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-column","numeros-108-resilience-en","auteurs-joelle-dube-en","artistes-ayam-yaldo-en","type_chronique-atelier-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/chronique\/186388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/chronique"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chronique"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186388"},{"taxonomy":"numeros","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/numeros?post=186388"},{"taxonomy":"disciplines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/disciplines?post=186388"},{"taxonomy":"statuts","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/statuts?post=186388"},{"taxonomy":"checklist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/checklist?post=186388"},{"taxonomy":"auteurs","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/auteurs?post=186388"},{"taxonomy":"artistes","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artistes?post=186388"},{"taxonomy":"thematiques","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thematiques?post=186388"},{"taxonomy":"type_chronique","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/type_chronique?post=186388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}