By ABBIE JAMES,
Friday September 8, 2023
Artworks from a Somali-born multidisciplinary artist, writer and filmmaker have replaced advertising screens across the city.
The project is a part of BUILDHOLLYWOOD’s ‘Your Space or Mine’ initiative, a scheme which give artists from across the UK opportunities to connect with communities and “inspire and energise local neighbourhoods”.
Pieces created by Asmaa Jama (@asmaa_floats), whose work focuses on themes of myth, movement and migration, and curated by Zarina Rossheart can be found on twenty billboards and poster spaces from West Street and Stokes Croft to Old Market roundabout until September 10.
Curator Zarina Rossheart said: “Except this time nothing returns from the ashes by Asmaa Jama is a work of extraordinary beauty, courage and self-love.
“It is very important to Asmaa to share it with people who otherwise don’t access galleries and cinemas, who are kept out by the systems in place.
“The process of disassembling the film and the script into photographic stills with fragments of text gives us a glimpse into the tenderness and poetic texture of the work; while presenting it on large-scale billboards in public settings across Bristol supports the artist’s intention to resist erasure and create visibility for those who too often remain unseen.”
Bristol is the final location for the project following installations in Birmingham, Glasgow, Manchester and Brighton earlier in 2023.
BUILDHOLLYWOOD believe art and culture should be for everyone and use cities’ streets as a canvas to showcase local emerging creative talent.
The inspiration behind ‘All About Love’ comes from feminist theorist and writer bell hooks and their revolutionary book All About Love (2000).
Jama’s commission uses photographic stills from film Except this time nothing returns from the ashes (2022) created by Jama and Gouled Ahmed which can be viewed at Spike Island.
An advertising billboard at Old Market is home to new artwork – photo: Abbie James
Speaking about the project, Asmaa said: “I think love is a contaminating force that helps us resist our erasures and our annihilation.
“In Bristol, the places I love are the places that people have resisted their erasures, like St Paul’s, Easton and Barton Hill.
“Where the communities gather, and salvage themselves.”
On Saturday at 1pm, Jama will present an outdoor public reading of the poetic text from Except this time nothing returns from the ashes on West Street.
They will be joined by a guest collaborator okcandice, a writer, artist-curator and musician.
This film installation at Spike Island is free to enter and is on until 10 September. Details can be found via their website: www.spikeisland.org.uk
The performance will be followed by a group walk with the artist around the billboards in the local area.
To find out more about Asmaa’s work, visit www.asmaajama.com
Main photo: Kevin Lake