Online Curatorial Tour: Kafala: Migrant Labor in the Arabian Peninsula
Starts on Sat, Sep 17, 2022 1:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-4)
Register here.
Join curator Clark Clark for a 3D tour and discussion of the exhibition “Kafala: Migrant Labor in the Arabian Peninsula”
About this event
Nearly 7,000 migrant workers have died thus far in preparation for Qatar’s 2022 FIFA World Cup, and the recent pandemic has only escalated the severity of the issue, leaving many more workers stranded, unpaid and neglected. This is just one example of how the Kafala sponsorship system is creating a migrant worker crisis in the Arabian Peninsula, which attracts workers from impoverished nations across Africa and Asia. Such workers regularly endure unconscionably long shifts, scorching heat, inhumane living conditions, and abuse. Employers regularly confiscate their passports, trade their visas to the highest bidder, and force them into crowded dormitories. This exhibition surveys art and creative activism that bring attention to this exploitative system, and calls for its reform.
A group of artists, writers, architects, and curators known as the Gulf Labor Artist Coalition organized protests to protect migrant workers’ rights during the development of the New York University campus, The Guggenheim, and Louvre museums in Abu Dhabi. Jonas Bendiksen’s photographic reportage documents migrant workers’ lives in the UAE, Kuwait, and Qatar. Street portraits by Sudanese artist Khalid Al Baih and Indian photographer Aparna Jayakuma showcase guest workers’ sartorial choices on their only day off. Illustrations by Ryan Inzana bring attention to the trafficking of women, and drawings by Molly Crabapple reveal the plight of the construction workers who have built up Saadiyat Island in the UAE.
Kafala: Migrant Labor in the Arabian Peninsula is on view at apexart, at 291 Church Street, NYC, NY from September 9 – October 22, 2022.
EVENT DETAILS
A Zoom link will be sent upon registration. Please login to Zoom using the same name that you use in eventbrite, so that we know that it’s you.
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS
Khalid Al Baih and Aparna Jayakumar | Todd Ayoung and Jelena Stojanović | Hanna Barczyk | Jonas Bendiksen | Clark Clark | Molly Crabapple | Noah Fischer | Mariam Ghani | Matt Greco and Gregory Sholette | Ryan Inzana | Pedro Lasch | Dread Scott | Jaret Vadera
BIO
Clark Clark is an interdisciplinary artist, activist, and an assistant professor of art and graphic design from Minneapolis, Minnesota. He earned an MFA from Brooklyn College and a BFA from Webster University. His latest creative work includes photographing stray cats in the Middle East and painting vibrant geometrical abstract murals.
IMAGE
Molly Crabapple, Slaves of Happiness Island, 2014
