An iteration of Gita Hashemi’s rumi roaming multimodal anthology, this exhibition is organized around seasons of nature, and creates multiple occasions for stepping out of the touristic ecology of Ucluelet, a popular storm-watching and surfing destination on Vancouver Island. At the beginning of each season a part of the project will be presented on site, online and by mail.
rumi roaming ucluelet includes Hashemi's 4-part video cycle "oneness of being,” presented at UMD and for online viewing, accompanied with banners roaming through ucluelet, limited edition miniature prints offered on site at UMD, and limited edition mailarts available by subscription. Scroll down for more information on how to access the artworks, to download a chapter of the forthcoming anthology “rumi roaming,” and to pre-order your copy.
“Oneness of being” was created as part of the forthcoming multiplatform anthology "rumi roaming." Each video is a kaleidoscopic visual reverie on land and water and seasonal changes, inspired by and interpolated with verses from Rumi.
Aiming to fosters opportunities for decolonial culture-sharing between Indigenous and settler inhabitants driven, this iteration of the rumi roaming project at Ucluelet explores the affinities between Nuučanuł and Persianate cosmologies, taking its starting point from the phrase hišukʔiš c̓awaak (everything is one) and these Rumi lines with which the video cycle starts:
The dawn of existence has only one sun
its oneness of being sustains every particle
Yet because it reveals new facets
at each dawn and dusk it looks as an other
rumi roaming ucluelet highlights our existential connections to land and water by exploring earth-focused and place-based creative practices through multi-spatial encounters, operating within an exhibition economy of harm reduction by using existing outdoor and virtual spaces, and recycled/reused paper and botanical inks and pigments made by the artist.
