Tahir Karmali, Untitled, 2023. Conté on Vellum, 42 in x 30 in. Image by Adam Schreiber.
Project Details
Fluent~Collaborative & testsite are pleased to present Pulp Friction, a collaboration between Tahir Karmali and Regine Basha.
Tahir Carl Karmali is a Kenyan-born artist based in New York.
Over the past 15 years, his work has spanned photography, sculpture, textile installation, prints, and drawings. Though his formal approach may appear deceptively minimal, his choice of materials is often imbued with hidden narratives of ecological exploitation, human migratory patterns, and intersections of the personal with the geo-political. He cites artists such as Eva Hesse, El Anatsui, Agnes Denes, Isamu Noguchi, and Zarina Hashmi, as artists with whom he has connective tissue. The work he has created specifically for testsite, which includes drawings as well as a new sculpture made onsite, reflects upon the border – its physicality as well as its porousness and the trauma it causes to migrant bodies and to land use.
Tahir is also engaged with cooking as a practice and creates gatherings that prompt a conversation around the history of spice and migration.
testsite 23.3 guest curator Regine Basha has created an abstract text as a reflection of and solidarity with Tahir's work.
Project Images
