MADE IN AMERICA

jamil@jamilyamani.com //+61 (0)422 971 538

Jamil Yamani

2011// MADE IN AMERICA, Moe's Garage, Jackson Avenue, New York

This work ‘Made in America’ is an embedded video sculpture that aims to encourage debate on what drives narratives of identity. The sculpture takes iconic Islamic designs and religious structures and combines them with a classic American car, namely a Chevelle 1969 Malibu. It is an example of US car-making in a specific, possibly more mono-narrative era. The roof of the vehicle has an iconic Islamic dome and four minarets built upon it, synthesizing the sculpture into a ‘mobile Mosque’. The work undermines notions of the ‘other’ through the use of familiar objects. The windows of the vehicle serve as projection surfaces where each window is individually mapped with its own discreet footage. I have broken the front, side and rear windows into future, present and past respectively.

Photo Credit: Zann Wimberley