Biennial Bytes
Sharjah Art Foundation
Biennial Bytes is the official podcast of Sharjah Biennial.
Bringing the Biennial to life for culture enthusiasts around the world, the podcast delves into the work of some of the most prominent artists practising today.
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Top 10 Biennial Bytes Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Biennial Bytes episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Biennial Bytes for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Biennial Bytes episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
Ep 10: Mithu Sen — Gender and Glitch
Biennial Bytes
05/29/23 • 34 min
How can the distortion of language resist oppressive power structures? In what ways can depicting the body reveal and defy social strictures?
To find out, listen to Mithu Sen in conversation with SB15 curator Hoor Al Qasimi.
At Sharjah, Sen installed a mixed-media installation called I am from there. I am from here (2023) at the Calligraphy Square.
The work takes the form of a poem, in a script that resembles Arabic calligraphic forms but is in fact entirely fictional. Made using a combination of synthetic hair as well as Sen’s own, the text also includes emojis - and seems to allude at once to the expectations, possibilities and limits of communication.
Sen’s work is on view at till 11 June 2023.
Click here to view it online.
Press play to learn more about Sen’s practice, process and SB15 project as well as what makes her work speak to our current time and place.
To receive updates about the 15th Sharjah Biennial and the Sharjah Art Foundation’s year-round programme, follow us on Instagram @sharjahart.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Ep 11: Abdulrahim Salem — Tradition and Community
Biennial Bytes
06/05/23 • 28 min
How can artistic techniques capture invisible phenomena such as movement and magic? What are the ways in which can traditional practices be reinterpreted within contemporary art?
To find out, listen to Abdulrahim Salem in conversation with SB15 curator Hoor Al Qasimi.
At SB15, Salem presented a live painting performance called An Unknown Sailor set to a traditional Emirati sea shanty sung by singers who accompanied pearl divers. The work acknowledges how during the colonial period, the sea was also occupied, as trade routes and supply chains came under foreign control. The painting Salem made during the performance now is on view in Kalba.
Salem’s work is on view at till 11 June 2023.
Click here to view it online.
Press play to learn more about Salem’s practice, process and SB15 project as well as what makes his work speak to our current time and place.
To receive updates about the 15th Sharjah Biennial and the Sharjah Art Foundation’s year-round programme, follow us on Instagram @sharjahart.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Ep 9: Annalee Davis — Planting and Recovering
Biennial Bytes
05/22/23 • 27 min
How can gardens become spaces for healing and community? Can plantations become sites for challenging exploitation and the vestiges of colonialism?
To find out, listen to Annalee Davis in conversation with SB15 curator Hoor Al Qasimi.
At Sharjah, Davis grew a medicinal garden made using plants, herbal knowledge and gardening practices from around the world. The work, called Pray to Flowers — A Plot of Disalienation (2023) and made in collaboration with artist and gardener Yoeri Guépin, critiques colonial cultivation as well as the misuse of land due to globalisation.
Davis’ work is on view at Bait Al Hurma courtyard in Al Mureijah Square till 11 June 2023.
Click here to view it online.
Press play to learn more about Davis’ practice, process and SB15 project as well as what makes his work speak to our current time and place.
To receive updates about the 15th Sharjah Biennial and the Sharjah Art Foundation’s year-round programme, follow us on Instagram @sharjahart.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Ep 7: Kambui Olujimi —Flight and Freedom
Biennial Bytes
05/08/23 • 19 min
What happens to a Black body when it stops being weighed down by forces of oppression and is freed from gravity? Can the result be Black rhapsody?
To find out, listen to Kambui Olujimi in conversation with SB15 curator Hoor Al Qasimi
At Sharjah, Olujimi installed an immersive, site-specific work called In The Dark, We Lose Our Edges (2023) comprising sculpture, sound and painting. The installation references colonial printing processes, Congolese masks and mazes with many routes, to propose the ways in which bodies might defy gravity and take flight.
Olujimi’s works are on view at The Flying Saucer till 11 June 2023.
Click here to view them online.
Press play to learn more about Olujimi’s practice, process and SB15 project as well as what makes his work speak to our current time and place.
To receive updates about the 15th Sharjah Biennial and the Sharjah Art Foundation’s year-round programme, follow us on Instagram @sharjahart.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
EP04: Yhonnie Scarce x Megan Tamati-Quennell
Biennial Bytes
03/10/25 • 31 min
Megan Tamati-Quennell and artist Yhonnie Scarce shed light on the historical context of nuclear testing on Aboriginal lands in Australia. Her installation Orford Ness (2022) comprises 1000 hand-blown glass yams, which are the food of Scarce’s people. Commissioned for SB16, Operation Buffalo (2024) similarly probes into untold narratives surrounding nuclear testing. Their discussion draws parallels between the desert landscapes of Sharjah and Australia. Tune in to engage with the artist’s sense of materiality and reflections on Country, fragility, resilience and collective memory.
Orford Ness is on view at Kalba Ice Factory and Operation Buffalo is on view at Al Hamriyah Studios from 6 February until 15 June 2025.
CREDITS
Host
Megan Tamati-Quennell
Guest s
Yhonnie Scarce
Editorial and Content Strategy Team
Jyoti Dhar, Kamayani Sharma and Mahshid Rafiei
Podcast Producer
Kamayani Sharma
Sound Producer
Basil Kisswani
Shownotes
Rajwant Sandhu and Suguna Sridhar
Special Thanks
Nawar Al Qassimi, Jiwon Lee, Amal Alkhaja and Reem Sawan
© Sharjah Art Foundation, 2025
This episode was recorded on 29 October 2024.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Ep 6: Yinka Shonibare — Pastiche and Publics
Biennial Bytes
05/01/23 • 22 min
How does referencing art of the past reveal social and economic realities that affect us in the present? What does it mean when objects and symbols of historical oppression are subverted by contemporary artists and citizens?
To find out, listen to this episode recorded before Sharjah Biennial 15 opened, where Yinka Shonibare is in conversation with SB15 curator Hoor Al Qasimi.
In Sharjah, Shonibare recreated eleven of London’s public statues and painted them in Dutch wax or batik fabric patterns. The work, called Decolonial Structures (2022), is a reminder of the violent legacies of once-powerful figures memorialised like this.
All works are on view at Old Al Diwan Al Amiri till 11 June 2023.
Click here to view them online.
Press play to learn more about Shonibare’s practice, process and SB15 project as well as what makes his work speak to our current time and place.
To receive updates about the 15th Sharjah Biennial and the Sharjah Art Foundation’s year-round programme, follow us on Instagram @sharjahart.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Ep 8: Archana Hande — Labour and Technology
Biennial Bytes
05/15/23 • 29 min
How can images bring to life the narratives of labour and materials which make up the story of modernity? In what ways do western ideas of development influence representation of urban life around the globe?
To find out, listen to Archana Hande in conversation with SB15 curator Hoor Al Qasimi.
At Sharjah, Archana installed two works — an interactive installation called Weaving Light at Al Hamriyah Studios and an animated film called All is Fair in Magic White at Sharjah Art Museum.
Weaving Light is a large-scale hollow cube made up of punching cards once used in 19th century handlooms in Bengaluru. It also features objects found in textile factories, a set of research materials and a film. All is Fair in Magic White comprises an animated film and a series of painted block prints. The film parodies the depiction of Mumbai as a global city by drawing attention to its inequalities and divisions.
Hande’s works are on view at Al Hamriyah Studios and Sharjah Art Museum till 11 June 2023.
Click here to view them online.
Press play to learn more about Hande’s practice, process and SB15 project as well as what makes his work speak to our current time and place.
To receive updates about the 15th Sharjah Biennial and the Sharjah Art Foundation’s year-round programme, follow us on Instagram @sharjahart.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Ep 3: Hassan Hajjaj - Music and Ritual
Biennial Bytes
04/08/23 • 29 min
What are the ways in which identity gets stereotyped and commodified in visual media? Can art draw on diverse histories to express solidarities in the present?
To find out, listen this episode, recorded before Sharjah Biennial 15 opened, where Hassan Hajjaj is in conversation with SB15 curator Hoor Al Qasimi.
At Sharjah, Hajjaj shows a documentary film called Gnawa Capoeira Brothahood (2022). Tracing the historical similarities between a Moroccan performance art called Gnawa and a Brazilian martial art called Capoeira, the film is on view at Bait Al Serkal, Sharjah till 11 June 2023. Click here to view it online.
Press play to learn more about Hajjaj’s practice, process and SB15 project as well as what makes his work speak to our current time and place.
To receive updates about the 15th Sharjah Biennial and the Sharjah Art Foundation’s year-round programme, follow us on Instagram @sharjahart.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Ep 2: Mary Sibande - Self and Solidarity
Biennial Bytes
04/08/23 • 26 min
How can materials and forms associated with racial oppression be subverted to oppose their original meaning? Can art help us reimagine difficult pasts in ways that allows us to heal in the present? To find out, listen this episode where Mary Sibande is in conversation with SB15 curator Hoor Al Qasimi.
At Sharjah, Sibande installed a work called A Reverse Retrogress: Scene 1 (2013).
Featuring a domestic worker standing before a purple sculpture, the work references the 1989 Purple Rain anti-apartheid protest in Cape Town. It is on view at Al Hamriyah Studios, Sharjah till 11 June 2023. Click here to view it online.
Press play to learn more about Sibande’s practice, process and SB15 project as well as what makes her work speak to our current time and place.
To receive updates about the 15th Sharjah Biennial and the Sharjah Art Foundation’s year-round programme, follow us on Instagram @sharjahart.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Ep 1: Nari Ward - Redemption and Transformation
Biennial Bytes
04/08/23 • 26 min
Can objects from the past make us see the present in a new light? How does art reframe things that carry histories of oppression? To find out, listen to this episode, recorded before Sharjah Biennial 15 opened, where artist Nari Ward is in conversation with SB15 curator Hoor Al Qasimi.
At Sharjah, Ward installed a work called Duty Colossus (2023). A large-scale project modelled on fish traps and placed alongside a dhow, the work is on view at the Kalba Ice Factory, Sharjah till 11 June 2023. Click here to view it online.
Press play to learn more about Ward’s practice, process and SB15 project as well as what makes his work speak to our current time and place.
To receive updates about the 15th Sharjah Biennial and the Sharjah Art Foundation’s year-round programme, follow us on Instagram @sharjahart.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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FAQ
How many episodes does Biennial Bytes have?
Biennial Bytes currently has 18 episodes available.
What topics does Biennial Bytes cover?
The podcast is about Podcasts and Arts.
What is the most popular episode on Biennial Bytes?
The episode title 'Ep 3: Hassan Hajjaj - Music and Ritual' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Biennial Bytes?
The average episode length on Biennial Bytes is 27 minutes.
How often are episodes of Biennial Bytes released?
Episodes of Biennial Bytes are typically released every 6 days, 22 hours.
When was the first episode of Biennial Bytes?
The first episode of Biennial Bytes was released on Apr 8, 2023.
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