Hyperopia: A Screening Performance By Mena El Shazly
Join us for a screening performance by Lind Prize finalist Mena El Shazly. Using the same tools of her original project, Hyperopia, this 55-minute piece begins in the bustling city of Vancouver with its architectural grids, and moves towards organic shapes and the structure of plant cell walls at Pacific Spirit Park. The film portrays a character’s monotonous daily practices performing repetitive rituals, navigating the mundane through scrolling, swiping, clicking and zooming while searching for patterns and their connections. The same character in the film is also seen on stage performing the film, sometimes literally reaching into the world of the film with her hands.
The screening includes improvisational scores performed live by distinguished BC-based violinist and composer Meredith Bates.
Doors at 6:30pm
Screening performance* begins at 7:00pm
*Please note this event takes place inside the main exhibition gallery
RSVPs are appreciated
About Mena El Shazly
Mena El Shazly is a visual artist who works with analogue video, embroidery, and performance. Her practice speculates on concepts of presence and transcendence, how these are informed by internet culture and ancient rituals, and how we might cultivate decay to arrive at alternative forms of transformation and regeneration.
Image: Hyperopia, Hydrophobic Microverse, with the original Arabic transcript of the Crystalist Manifesto published in Al-Ayyam newspaper, 1976. Screening performance at the Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema, 2023. Photo by Zhonghang (Daisy) Zhang, 2023
Banner Image: Hyperopia, Hydrophobic Microverse, with the original Arabic transcript of the Crystalist Manifesto published in Al-Ayyam newspaper, 1976. Video still, 2024. Courtesy of the artist.