Air

Jananne Al-Ani Born 1966, Kirkuk, Iraq Lives and works in London, United Kingdom By adopting the bird’s-eye view of the fighter pilot or the cruise missile, it was possible to represent the landscape of the Middle East as a barren, unoccupied desert. 1 The films of Iraq-born artist Jananne Al-Ani reveal the imprint of history, conflict and occupation. Of the point of view adopted in her works, the artist observes: One of the most striking effects an aerial view offers is the possibility of flattening and abstracting any standing structures, including the human body. When used in war, the privileged perspective of those in the air can reduce the visibility of the population on the ground: the image of the landscape becomes two-dimensional, cartographic. 2 Al-Ani describes her film Black Powder Peninsula 2016 as focusing ‘on the British landscape and, by implication, Britain’s historic role in the formation of both the United States and the modern Middle East’. 3 To establish her visual language, the artist drew on World War One aerial reconnaissance photography and the practice of aerial archaeology, which uses the long shadows of dawn and dusk to identify ruins as seen from high above. Al-Ani’s earlier films convey a sense of falling to Earth, recalling the perspective — in eerie slow-motion — of a missile nearing its target. Black Powder Peninsula also employs an aerial perspective and bleached, sepia‑toned footage, but this time, our viewpoint rises as if we are being lifted out of the landscape. The sensation is akin to an out-of-body experience, or lucid dream. The work takes its name from gunpowder, introduced into Europe and the Middle East in the thirteenth century from China, revealing the interconnectedness of our global histories. 1 Jananne Al-Ani, quoted in Charlotte Harding, ‘Reimagining war beyond its exceptionality’, British Journal of Photography , 28 October 2016, <bjp-online. com/2016/10/reimagining- war-beyond-itsexceptionality/>, viewed June 2018. 2 Jananne Al-Ani, quoted in ‘Disappearance of the body: An interview with Cécile Bourne Farrell’, Philosophy of Photography , vol.7, nos 1–2, 2016, p. 77. 3 Al-Ani, quoted in Bourne Farrell. Jananne Al-Ani / Black Powder Peninsula (still, detail) 2016 125 124 Burn Burn