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Did You Come Here To Find History

The various combinations of appropriated images laid side by side, only connecting at points which the eyes of the portraits meet, create a jittery narrative about Nusra Latif Qureshi’s struggle to connect with art history. Nusra Latif Qureshi’s artwork ‘Did You Come Here to Find History?’(2009) formally odes to the art of filmmaking in a number of ways. The images that are composed in a linear structure can directly be related to both the linear structure of historical narratives (timeline) as well as the linear structure of a film (storyline). The images which are digitally printed on a clear film and displayed on a light box reminisce, in an almost romantic manner, the projectors which were used to screen third cinema films in the underground basements of Latin America.

In this paper, I aim to formally and thematically read ‘Did You Come Here to Find History’ with regard to the cut and paste montage aesthetic of the films of Third Cinema, in particular Octavio Getino and Fernando Solanas’s La hora de los hornos (1968) and Reece Auguiste (Black Audio Film Collective)’s Twilight City (1989). After which I will focus on Qureshi’s attempt to reconstruct art history as a polycentric history and how this with regard to the films of third cinema can be seen as a stand against imperialism.  

Film as a form of communication has certain characteristics that allows them to draw audiences which include people of difference origins, many of whom might not respond favourably to the announcement of a political speech. Film’s ability to reach to the masses elevates its importance as a useful medium for certain political vanguards.

Similar motives can be assumed to be considered by Qureshi while showing in this format at the Venice Biennale. The international platform ensures a wide array of audiences of different origins whom she can make aware of the incoherence in the art history narrative. She further goes on to comment on how this incoherence results in identity struggles which a Pakistani diasporic artist may face while exhibiting on an international platform.

The tools which Qureshi uses to communicate this historical narrative and its incoherence are the images which she chooses to use in her work, which include, a photograph of an anonymous 19th century Indian acrobat, 18th century Mughal portraits, 17th century Venetian paintings and a passport photograph of the artist herself.

The use of appropriated images in Qureshi’s artwork make a similar statement as that made by diasporic African artists who work in the medium of garbage and recycled materials. These artists are obliged to recreate their history out of scraps and remains of debris as their own history has been destroyed, misrepresented and dispersed rather than lovingly remembered. Garbage thus becomes an ideal medium for those who themselves have been cast off and broken down.

Shohat and Stam explain that in aesthetic terms these hand me down aesthetics and history making embody an art of discontinuity. The heterogeneous scraps making up a quilt for example incorporate diverse styles, time period and materials. The heterogeneous scraps found in Qureshi’s work are present in the contrasting styles of the Venetian portraits and Mughal portraits and the striking time difference present through the introduction of photographs among the detailed aristocrat portraits.

The hand me down aesthetic is also present in La hora de los hornos as well as in Twilight City, as both films depend greatly on their uses of archival footage. Shohat and Stam explain that for filmmakers without great resource, raw-footage minimalism reflects practical necessity as well as artistic strategy. In a film like La hora de los hornos unpromising raw footage is transmogrified into art as the alchemy of sound-image montage transforms the base metals of titles, blank frames and wild sound into the gold and silver rhythmic virtuosity. Compilation filmmakers like Solanas and Getino rearrange and re-edit pre-existing filmic materials while trying to fly below the radar of bourgeois legalities.

When Qureshi’s artwork is looked at as a narrative of images, the narrative is not a visually smooth transition of images. The abrupt stops between the images are heightened by the stark contrast of the Venetian portraits, Mughal miniature portraits and photographs of an Indian acrobat and of Qureshi herself.

However, the jittery narrative of the work is greatly reflective of one of the most striking aesthetic features of both La hora de los hornos and Twilight City, which are the short clips of which they are made up. Julio García Espinosa explained that is reasons for this is that objective of imperfect cinema was not to focus on artist and technical excellence, Imperfect cinema is no longer interested in quality or technique it is the opposite of a cinema dedicated to celebrate results. Espinosa maintains that imperfect cinema must focus on the process which generates the problem and submit it to judgement without pronouncing the verdict.  The very fact that Qureshi chooses to align the images at no other point besides the eyes of the portraits illustrates her process of searching for her history among the aristocratic portraits and the repetitive search through various combinations of the same image show no verdict to the process.

The cinema of the revolution is seen as one of deconstruction and construction at the same time. Deconstruction of the image that neo-colonialism has created of itself and of us and construction of a throbbing living reality which recaptures truth in any of its expressions. A similar deconstruction and construction of art history takes place in Qureshi’s work through the overlaying of images. Her choice of a Venetian portrait and Mughal miniature painting highlight the position of privilege assumed by the aristocrats of the 19th century. The parallel of decadence and a privileged level of artistic encouragement are constant between the two portraits. Mughal and Venetian paintings which Qureshi has chosen were made in a time in which the monarchy and the rich, who earned their money from trade, assumed a position of privilege which ensured their immortality in art history. While in reality these monarchs had little to do with art history.

Solanas and Getino explain that imperialism and capitalism veil everything behind a stream of images and appearance. The image of reality is more important than reality itself. It is this stream of images that Qureshi deconstructs with the ironic contrast of photographs, of herself and an Indian acrobat who bears a striking resemblance to Qureshi, against detailed decedent portraits to point out how wastefully well preserved the paintings are. She further questions the preservation of these paintings by placing herself in the midst of them and emphasizing the fact that subjects of the portraits bear no significance to history, neither art history nor Qureshi’s.

A similar break in the narrative take places in Twilight City, as the correspondence between Olivia and her mother in Dominica strategically interrupts the interviews and archival footage. This creates the signature irregular rhythm of third cinema.  The archival footage plays an important role in the film as it contextualises the correspondence between Olivia and her mother. It further elaborates the repercussions of the physical and social change which took place in London while adding a humanising factor.

The irregular rhythm of Twilight City of the interviews, the voice of Olivia and the archival footage is strikingly similar to the irregular rhythm in Qureshi’s work as she places photographs of herself among detailed decedent aristocrat portraits and fails to achieve a place for herself in history. Similar to how Olivia and her mother fail to find a place for themselves in London during the conservative rule.

Qureshi’s narrative progresses with the use of various combinations of overlaid images. It is with this narrative which she deconstructs the images that the monarchy has created of itself, that is a false image of great importance in art history.

Espinosa agrees that there can be no “impartial” or “uncommitted” art, there can be no new and genuine qualitative jump in art, unless the concept and the reality of the “elite” is done away with once and for all.

It is through the deconstruction of these portraits that Qureshi points out the gaps, which are emphasised by the contrasting photographs and meticulous portraits, in history. However, it is these gaps and incoherence in history which Qureshi aims to do in this artwork. The revision of history which Qureshi aims at with this artwork is emphasized by its linear structure, which can be directly associated with the linear structure of historical events (timeline) as well as the linear structure of a narrative and a film. Within Qureshi’s linear structure, we see glimpses of what Shohat and Stam refer to as the ‘polycentric history’.

Europe has always been represented to have played a central and important role in art history while non-European third world countries are continually represented as less developed and lagging behind. Visuals, which are an integral part of culture and history, greatly aid these misconceptions.

Solanas and Getino elaborate that culture, art, science and cinema always respond to conflicting class interests. In the neo-colonial situation two concepts of culture, art, science and cinema compete that of the rulers and that of the nation. They go on to say that culture becomes bilingual not because of the use of two languages but due to the conjuncture of two different cultural patterns of thinking. One is national, that of the people and the other is estranging that of the classes subordinate to outside forces.

According to Shohat and Stam, this perspective ignores the theory of polycentric history that sees the world as interlinked living the same historical moment under diverse modalities of subordination. Qureshi’s contrasting use of the realism displayed in the Venetian portraits with the flatness of the Mughal miniature portraits illustrate Shohat and Stam’s idea of a polycentric history through the diversity of culture and style but at the same time highlights the similarities of aristocratic patrons in both the Venetian and Mughal cultures.

Espinosa, in For an Imperfect Cinema, mentions “When we look toward Europe, we wring our hands. We see that the old culture is totally incapable of providing answers to the problems of art.” He further goes on to say that this is the moment that the underdeveloped can deck themselves out as men of culture. Shohat and Stam agree and state that a polycentric approach, in our view, is a long over-due gesture toward historical equity and lucidity, a way of re-envisioning the global politics of visual culture.

Qureshi’s attempts to correct art history may also be read as her attempts to protest against imperialism. As highlighted in the paper Towards a Third Cinema, and as mentioned earlier, imperialism veils everything behind a stream of images and appearance which thus makes the image of reality is more important than reality itself.

Solanas and Getino explain that it is because of these manipulative ways that the cinema of revolution focuses on both the construction and deconstruction of the image that neo-colonialism has created of itself and of us. Qureshi fights a similar battle against imperialism through the correction of history in her work and pointing out their irrelevance in art history.

One of the main motives of the cinema of revolution is to make the public aware of its own misery, not through a single film but an evolving complex of films. La hora de los hornos shows how a film can be made in hostile circumstances when it has the support and collaboration of militants and cadres from the people. And the power that such a film holds to start and begin dialogue in hostile circumstances.  

Solanas and Getino stress this greatly as they say that the film is a pretext for dialogue for the seeking and finding of wills. It is a report that we place before you for your consideration to be debated after the showing. This can also be seen as the reason why imperfect cinema does not strife for perfection or to compile a verdict. It is this open-endedness that encouraged the debates that followed film screenings in underground Latin America.

Similar motives are present in Qureshi’s artwork as she pays a tribute to the medium of film on a massive international platform such as the Venice Biennale. The open-endedness of the narrative of the artwork are certainly reflective of the third cinema films which formed a pretext for dialogical interaction between individuals, communities and cultures from which art is born.  

Works Cited

Shohat E., Stam R., ‘Narrativizing Visual Culture. Towards a polycentric aesthetics in Visual Culture Reader. Ed. By Nicholas Mirzoeff. London and New York. (Course Package)

Solanas, F., Getino. O, ‘Towards a Third Cinema’ New Latin American Cinema. Vol 1. Ed. by Michael T. Martin. Wayne State University Press (Detroit)

Rocha, Glauber, ‘The Aesthetics of Hunger’

Espinosa, Julio García, ‘For an Imperfect Cinema’ trans. Julianne Burton, Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media, 1979, 2005

Nasar, Hammad. ‘Reflective Looking, An expanded notion of self in the work of Nusra Latif Qureshi’ (2009) http://www.portrait.gov.au/content/nusra-latif-qureshi (Last accessed December 5 2014)

Ogidi, Ann, ‘Twilight City (1989)’, http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/475335/index.html (Last accessed December 7 2014)