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PROJECT

Assembly 2018 - 21


Brick Lane Mosque, London / Old Kent Road Mosque, London / Harrow Central Mosque, London / Applied Arts Pavilion, Venice, Staffordshire Street Gallery, London.


Assembly is a series of site-specific installations that perform Islamic prayer spaces, made and exhibited in Brick Lane Mosque (2018 –19), Old Kent Road Mosque (2019–20) and Harrow Mosque (2020-21). Made in collaboration with the respective mosque communities, reflexive workshops established clear guidelines for the filming process, ensuring an ethical, non-intrusive approach that respects the sacred moment of worship. Subsequently, automated motorised camera rigs are designed and installed in each mosque to record the Jumu'ah (Friday) prayer from an ariel perspective. The film is then projected onto the same carpet where the prayer took place, encouraging each community to reflect on their own religious practices and explore thoughts and feelings related to worship, time, space, and being. As one congregation member described,

"The projection opened my eyes to the physical act of prayer. Of movement and repetition. Because my view or senses are often fixed on a focal point (the imam), I didn’t really consider my own movements. But of course, in the core of Islamic thought, it is the worshipper’s movements that are essential and none others." (Congregation feedback)


The controlled motorisation of the projection mirrors the movement of the recorded image, which gives the effect of only the frame moving through physical space, constantly revealing, and concealing the actual site below. Assembly does more than reproduce prayer: it also “performs” the social and religious structures of the site, each installation functions as a self-making apparatus, in turn, making a broader argument about the triumph of lived space over representational space. At the end of each residency, each mosque congregation invited the public into their mosques, providing an opportunity for Muslims and non-Muslims to experience Jumu'ah first-hand via the site performances.  The findings from this research were shown as part of the Three British Mosques exhibition at the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale, curated by Shahed Saleem and the V&A.

Project partners were the Inclusive Mosque Initiative, Interfaith UK and the Muslim Council of Britain.



EXHIBITION

Faith, Place and Migration
Staffordshire Street Gallery, London.


This multi-media installation introduces the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of London's oldest Nigerian community, the Old Kent Road Mosque. Through this exhibition, the curators question the nature of a community archive and explore how the narratives of community members are embedded in and told through the architecture of their sacred spaces.


EXHIBITION

Three British Mosques
V&A Special Project Applied Arts Pavilion, 2021 Venice Biennale. 


In collaboration with the Victoria and Albert Museum and architect Shahed Saleem the Three British Mosques exhibition was made for the 2021 Venice Biennale. The pavilion looked at the self-built world of adapted mosques through 1:1 reconstructions of their highly decorative mihrabs, minbars and other architectural elements.



SITE PERFORMANCE

Brick Lane Mosque, London, 2018


Made in collaboration with Brick Lane Jamme Masjid community, Assembly comprises of two simultaneous installation, one in the main prayer hall and one in the female prayer room. Assembly found a way to connect and engage the prayer spaces, allowing access for men and women to both sites.


SITE PERFORMANCE

Old Kent Road Mosque, London, 2020


The Muslim Association of Nigeria UK at Old Kent Road Mosque has built a large, active community within an adapted public house in Southwark. Due to COVID-19 a socially distanced performance took place providing an opportunity for the mosque community to virtually experience congregational prayer, after a period of two months without access to the mosque.



SITE PERFORMANCE

Harrow Central Mosque, London, 2021


Harrow Central Mosque started life through the adaptation of a pair of semi-detached 1930’s houses. The house-mosque was modified and enlarged throughout its life, until it could no longer accommodate the size of the Muslim community, and the adjacent site was purchased and the new mosque built.