9 September 2023—12 January 2024
text by Mercer Union
Mercer Union’s SPACE billboard commission has invited artist Sukaina Kubba for its 2023–24 season for a yearlong series titled, Jealousy. Formally trained as an architect, Kubba deploys transitional objects and textiles alongside historical research and narrative fiction to propose novel methods of unpacking and relating to cultural artefacts. Through sculpture, drawing, embroidery, and various forms of image transfer, her practice is a study of motifs in heirlooms and fibre objects of high trade, that are often activated by historical and fictional characters.
Working with materials such as photo emulsion, plastic filament, and various sheer fabrics, Jealousy presents three sculptural works, each forging an impression of the one before to form a series of abstracted theatrical drapes. Prompted by the history of Mercer Union’s building as a cinema in the early part of the last century, these works come together as adverts for a fictional premiere: a new film adaptation of Alain Robbe-Grillet’s 1957 novel La Jalousie. Noting the double-meaning of the title (“jealousy” or “louvered window”), Kubba attunes to the history and architecture of the building, taking cues from the various mediating forms punctuating its façade—vents, chutes, and other porous passages—that elicit transgression and permit the senses to travel.
Jealousy: Now the Shadow is the first edition in the yearlong series; the title is borrowed from the chapter “Now the shadow of the column” in La Jalousie (1957) by Alain Robbe-Grillet.
Accompanying the work is a text written by Natascha Nanji.
“Now the shadow of the furls is dark and the colours are mute. The seats—which were also velvet red a minute ago—are now grey. She cannot see the mechanism by which the curtain is hoisted, but knows the type of rope they use. Now the rope is wound, and the film reel is triggered. Now the shadow has disappeared.”
Sukaina Kubba
Excerpt from Natascha Nanji's original film adaptation of
La Jalousie (Jealousy) by Alain Robbe-Grillet
FADE IN
INT. THE BUNGALOW – UPSTAIRS HALLWAY - MID AFTERNOON - CLOSE-UP
The air is still and hums with persistent, hypnotic chirps of the cicadas.
CAMERA IS FRAMED TIGHTLY ON A, she is wearing her curly black hair down, it falls to the shoulders of her close-fitting, mandarin-collared, creamy lemon dress. She has just entered the hallway, and the door behind her is shut.
She is staring at the gentle curvatures of the balustrade, her eyes following along the fading, rhythmic symmetry of the peeling, pale wooden structure. Her gaze subtly moves to the solid outline of the window frame, before finally settling on the freshly scrubbed, bare wood floors...
After an extended pause, she takes six, concentrated steps into the next room.
After an extended pause, she takes six, concentrated steps into the next room.
INT. THE BUNGALOW – BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS
CAMERA FOLLOWS A, PULLING BACK SLIGHTLY TO WIDEN THE FRAME SO PART OF THE BEDROOM IS SEEN. SHE IS STILL IN CLOSE-UP, THOUGH ONLY HER BACK IS VISIBLE, ILLUMINATED BY A BEAM OF HAZY SUNLIGHT PIERCING THROUGH THE PARTIALLY LOWERED, SLATTED WOODEN BLINDS OF HER BEDROOM.
She walks over to a large, dark mahogany chest of drawers. It is a heavy, lumbering item of furniture. She struggles to open the top drawer, forcefully dragging it out. While handling some papers on the right side of the drawer, she leans in to examine its depth, tugging it out even further as she does so, to fully explore its far recesses. For a time we only see her back, which is straight and composed. As she moves, we see that she is holding something. And as she turns, the light reveals it to be a piece of paper, pale blue, almost translucent, and standard in size. It has been opened flat, displaying precise creases where it had been folded into even quarters. As the paper catches beams of low afternoon light, steady black curls of diligent penmanship are seen. Holding the paper between the thumb and forefinger of her right hand, with her left hand, she firmly pushes the drawer closed.
CAMERA PANS, SLOWLY FOLLOWING A, she walks towards the small, wooden worktable on which she places the unfolded paper. On the table is a leather writing case. CAMERA PAUSES ON A as her fingers trace the outer seam, resting at the clasp which she gently taps as she slides the case open. From the left sleeve she carefully withdraws a single sheet of paper, similar in appearance to the one she has placed on the table. She pulls out a wooden chair, sits down, picks up the glossy black and silver fountain pen on the desk, unscrews the cap, and leans over to write. Her left hand moves in a steady crawl along the page, occasionally she turns to look at the unfolded letter.
INSERT SHOT: CAMERA PANS VERY SLOWLY ACROSS THE BACK OF A’S HEAD, MOVING ALONG HER GLEAMING, LUSTROUS BLACK LOCKS, PAUSING FOR A FEW SECONDS AT THE METAL CLASP OF HER DRESS LOWER DOWN HER BACK.
THE SMOOTHNESS OF THE CAMERA MOVEMENT IS INTERRUPTED WITH A SLIGHT BUT NOTICEABLE JOLT. SUDDENLY, BUT AT THE SAME STEADY PACE, THE CAMERA RETREATS FROM ITS POSITION, ZOOMING OUTWARDS. THE CAMERA CONTINUES, CROSSING THE HALLWAY, AND THROUGH THE WOODEN SLATS OF THE OFFICE WINDOW. HERE IT PAUSES, LOOKING OUT ACROSS THE BUNGALOW.
EXT. THE BUNGALOW – VERANDA – LATE AFTERNOON
NOW THE SHADOW OF THE COLUMN IS FALLING LONG ACROSS THE CENTRAL SANDY FLAGSTONE. CHAIRS HAVE BEEN SET OUT FACING THE VALLEY WHERE EARLY DUSK NOW GROWS A BLUEISH-BLACK VEIL OVER THE DENSE FOLIAGE.
FADE OUT
Sukaina Kubba is an Iraqi-born Toronto-based artist who explores narratives of cultural and material assimilation and appropriation. Kubba's work has been included in recent exhibitions at the plumb, Toronto (2023); The Next Contemporary, Toronto (2023); Art Gallery of Ontario (2019); Aga Khan Museum, Toronto (2017); Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow (2016); and Glasgow International (2016, 2014). Recent residencies include International Studio and Curatorial Program, New York; and La Wayaka Current, Atacama Desert, Chile. Kubba is a sessional lecturer in Visual Studies at the University of Toronto, and previously served as curator and lecturer at Glasgow School of Art (2013–2018).
Kubba would like to extend sincere thanks to Omar Kaltrachian for technical and production assistance on Now the Shadow (2023).
Natascha Nanji (she/her) is a writer and artist currently based in London. Via speculations and mythologies, her research plots future and past histories into the present day, often tracing migratory routes of people and objects. Natascha is co-editor & publisher of LAY IT ON THICK, a literary magazine about queer desire and erotics, and co-runs The Theatre Group. Most recently her work has been commissioned for the 14th Annual Queer Arts Festival, Vancouver (2022); Spike Island, Bristol (2022); and feminist press Sticky Fingers (2021).
Kubba would like to extend sincere thanks to Omar Kaltrachian for technical and production assistance on Now the Shadow (2023).
Natascha Nanji (she/her) is a writer and artist currently based in London. Via speculations and mythologies, her research plots future and past histories into the present day, often tracing migratory routes of people and objects. Natascha is co-editor & publisher of LAY IT ON THICK, a literary magazine about queer desire and erotics, and co-runs The Theatre Group. Most recently her work has been commissioned for the 14th Annual Queer Arts Festival, Vancouver (2022); Spike Island, Bristol (2022); and feminist press Sticky Fingers (2021).
About the Series
SPACE invites one artist to produce a yearlong series of images for a public-facing billboard located on the east façade of Mercer Union
SPACE invites one artist to produce a yearlong series of images for a public-facing billboard located on the east façade of Mercer Union
Below: Installation view: Sukaina Kubba, Jealousy: Now the Shadow. Commissioned by Mercer Union, 2023. Courtesy the artist.
Photo: Vuk Dragojevic.
