My Father
2010
My Father (2010), video still
Still from Manmade (2010), developed by the artist around the same time of My Father
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Still from Lunda Bazaar (Secondhand Clothing Market) (2010), developed around the same time of My Father
"When I was born, my father was forty-five years-old, and as I grew up and stronger, I saw him grow older and weaker. My Father is an expression of a very personalized impression of my relationship with my father.
The video shows an old man trying to thread a needle: a simple task, but not for an old man. Throughout the course of the video, the old man attempts to accomplish the act, but cannot succeed.
I deliberately chose a small display size while filming the act of a needle being threaded: the small size of the needle underscores the intensity of an action that would seem uneventful and therefore insignificant. Its repetition is driven merely by the vanity of hope.
The line represents the struggles of everyday life, which we usually view as trivial, but are struggles of great importance and value when viewed within the context of time and mortality. The needle represents the gradual deterioration of human abilities with aging, and how even the faculties of hope and determination dissolve into life’s twilight."
Basir Mahmood in a statement to PLATFORM:VB (October 2013)
My Father (2010) | Basir Mahmood
Video | 2’10”, no sound, color, 4 : 3, loop
Excerpt from My Father (2010)
Testimony Basir Mahmood | 18th Festival
A late-born child, Basir recounts the experience of living at two simultaneous times: his own growing up and his youth, and his parents’ aging and weakening
The videos Manmade (2010) and Lunda Bazaar (Secondhand Clothing Market) (2010) were developed by the artist around the same time of My Father.