Jan. 17, 2012
Hassan Khan - CCA Kitakyushu

Hassan Khan // "Trusted sources", CCA Kitakyushu Project Gallery - December 24, 2011 - February 3, 2012

'trusted sources' is the title of this exhibition. It is a title that could, at least during this period, fit any work, text, piece of music or exhibition I could produce. Over the past ten days in Kitakyushu I scribbled these two words a few times in my notebook. When I drew a series of concentric squares, each one larger than the one before it, around this phrase I realized without doubt that this was a title, and that it had to be used.

The sources I am referring to here are several things at once. The reasons they are trusted also vary.
On one hand these are the sources of the work. And that could almost be anything: the way you dash across the road, the exact distance between two shelves in a run down café, the hysterical ranting of an obsessed writer, a moment of embarrassment suddenly remembered while washing the dishes, the fantasy of an incredible victory, a burning ambition, a deep sadness, a half-smile, a simple song that every time its listened to reveals something new, a mistake taken absolutely seriously.

They are the also the sources that I imagine lie behind every gesture of the world. The hidden agreement that allows a transaction between two individuals to take place, to have a name and to remember that it’s yours. To know, to believe, to be. To believe or not in love, friendship and family, to believe or not in punishment and rewards, in wanting and striving, in giving up, in accepting and rejecting. It is what allows a collective to exist, to organize itself into a form, and to communicate this order to all its members. It is what allows us to realize that we are conscious, we are one, and we are many. These are the sources that allow us to recognize that everyone else is similar to us, yet not us exactly.

And even if with every uncontrolled tic, every moment we forget, every time a king is beheaded our trust in these sources tremble. As long as we are here and still know that we are here, these sources will remain, outside our control yet absolutely trusted.

Image: pattern photo for 'trusted sources' from photosuite, 3 digital prints (72x50 cm each), wooden shelf (280x70)

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