Fatimah Tuggar is an artist-in-residence at Duke. Her work includes large-scale digital prints, videos and interactive works.

Untitled (army), 1996, Computer Montage (inkjet on vinyl)

Nebulous Wait, 2005, Computer Montage (inkjet on vinyl)

Opening reception:

Friday, April 24 - 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm
Smith Warehouse Bay 12


STATEMENT

Borrowing from the familiar language of advertisement, popular entertainment, and folklore, also drawing from the experiential, I investigate the cultural and social implications of technology. Technology is both a medium and a subject in my work. I use it as a metaphor for power dynamics to explore how media diversely impacts our realities. Assemblage, collage, and montage have long been central to my method of exploration and expression of ideas. 

I employ assemblage, when working with objects, by combining household tools from different cultures with their varying counterparts. I maintain the functionality or utilitarianism of the object so as not to render it mute. This is a way to look into the implications of the juggling act that occurs as we adapt, modify and are modified by, the implements and power systems that define our environments. 

In both my computer montages and video collages, I bring together a variety of images to closely examine cultural nuances so that the actual meaning of the work exist primarily in between the elements I bring together. My concern is not to pass definitive judgements on the cultures involved, but to look in between the cultural products and structures as a way to better understand how media technology influences and affects the daily lives of people. I focus on the internal relationships of the individuals within the image, tempered by the surrounding power structures. 

For example the series “Money & Matter,” which is made up of nine images, examines the relationship of human beings to capital, on a personal level and from a social perspective. In this series I use entertainment technologies as a vehicle for commentary on various and conflicting histories, journeys and materials in our experience. The symbols and expressions of money exist in relation to matter as both subject and object of what we desire and fear. The tension between the money’s power gaming and elements of distraction and the substance of what matters in peoples lives are at the core of this series. I for one know that I am unquestionably implicated in the dynamics of money & matter. 

My web based interactive work allows the viewer/participant to choose backgrounds and animated elements to create a collage. The provided backgrounds and elements facilitate the creation of temporary non-linear narratives that can be constructed or disrupted based on the choices made by the participant. Bringing together my own shots and sound recordings with found imagery and sounds, I produce icons, commodities and characterizations, that the participant can use to generate their own ongoing conversation which allows the exploration of these shifting factors. The process of assembling locates the actual content of the work in an interaction that is in constant flux. Therefore, content mainly exists in between the elements that are brought together. This creates a space for combining personal perceptions with these set components to create ongoing conversations, which are in expansive change. This opens up additional spaces for further dialogues that can be both fluid and or resistant.