Zihan Karim

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Zihan Karim

Eye II, 2015-2024

Installation with video projection

10’00”

 

The audiovisual installation Eye II (2015-2024) takes inspiration from the symbolism of the all-seeing eye across different cultures, including the seven-eyed prophet Zechariah from the New Testament and the Quran, as well as from Ursula Le Guin’s science fiction novel, The Word for World is Forest (1972). Motivated by protests in Chittagong against the proposed demolition of the hilly parkland around the CRB (Central Railway Building), considered “the lung of Chittagong,” the artist sought to to create an archive or “memory palace” of nearby forest areas, using an ultra-wide lens camera to document its trees and other flora, while setting these scenes within four dream-like sequences.

 

Zihan Karim (b. 1986) is a multidisciplinary artist from Chittagong, Bangladesh. Zihan Karim’s work often weaves together social happenings in civic life and political chronologies through archival modes, interdisciplinary thought, and processes of montage. Karim has participated in the Dhaka Art Summit (2012), the Fukuoka Asian Art Triennial (2014), Colomboscope (2024), and many other exhibitions.