Mardin Biennial: AbbaraCadabra

AbbaraCadabra, Mardin Biennial, Mardin, Turkey. 4/6/10-29/7/10. A series of citywide exhibitions bringing contemporary art from the West to the East of Turkey. The exhibition builds on the relationship between some of the artists work featured in the Sheffield Pavilion. Brown showed a film made in Istanbul entitled ‘Sticky Knots’, which explores the idea that dogs have evolved to use humans so that they are taken care of in return for a number of canine roles, such as security, hunting or companionship. The philosopher, Donna Haraway, suggests a new way of viewing this relationship: ‘Reversing the order of invention, humans didn’t invent dogs, dogs invented themselves and adopted humans as part of their reproductive strategy.’ Somehow, the arrangement in Istanbul seems to take this idea to an extreme and it is this that forms the central premise of the film. Filmed in 2009 at various locations throughout Istanbul, ‘Sticky Knots’ comprises of single, lingering shots of individual or small groups of stray dogs coexisting with humans.