Every Act of Recognition Alters What Survives

Every Act of Recognition Alters What Survives is a major new Shubbak commission from Rand Abdul Jabbar, a multi-disciplinary artist born in Baghdad.

Sited online and in Chelsea Physic Garden, London’s oldest botanical gardens, Every Act of Recognition Alters What Survives is a dynamic, episodic work by Rand Abdul Jabbar, a multi-disciplinary artist born in Baghdad and now living in Abu Dhabi.

Consisting of a series of sculptural interventions, performances and a digital archive, the work emerged from a participatory process in which women of the Iraqi and Arab diaspora in London engaged in conversation around the role of memory in relation to place and history.

Sensitively positioned in the four-acre atmospheric garden grounds close to the Thames, three sculptural interventions are set in dialogue with the wide range of plants from across the world, symbolic for the artist because of their resonance with themes of migration and dispersion. They create focal points for contemplation and reflection.

On certain days co-collaborator Entissar Hajali, one of the original workshop members, leads audiences through a performance walk, reciting her specially written personal text The Climbing Vine. Devised with directors Chrystele Khodr and Lara Sawalha, the performance explores the sensory and emotional qualities of the garden.