Assembly: performing Muslim congregational prayer.
Assembly is a multicomponent output comprising: four situated art installations; a virtual platform; an article on methodology. The filmic works performing Muslim congregational prayer were made and exhibited in Birmingham Central Mosque (2016); Brick Lane Mosque (2018 –19); Old Kent Road Mosque (2019–20); Harrow Mosque (2020). Marsh’s project will be part of the V&A special project co-curated by Shahed Saleem: Three British Mosques at Venice Architecture Biennale (postponed to May 2021 - see COVID-19 statement). See Portfolio Booklet for documentation of research dimensions.
- Submitting institution
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The University of Westminster
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- q9y33
- Type
- T - Other
- DOI
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- Location
- Assembly was made and exhibited in situ at Birmingham Central Mosque (2016), Brick Lane Mosque (2018 –19), Old Kent Road Mosque (2019–20), Harrow Mosque (2020). Part of a V&A special project at the Venice Architecture Biennale (postponed to May 2021).
- Brief description of type
- Other: Multicomponent
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
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- Year
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- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- Yes
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- Following postponement of the Venice Biennale of Architecture from May 2020 due to COVID-19, Assembly will now form part of the rescheduled V&A special project at Venice in May 2021. Entitled Three British Mosques, and co-curated by Shahed Saleem, an architect/author of The British Mosque: An Architectural and Social History (2018), the exhibition will be installed in a special structure that includes films and interviews generated through research into Assembly. The films will also enter the V&A collection as permanent digital artefacts. Further information on the research and exhibition are in the Portfolio booklet.
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Made in collaboration with the different mosque congregations, Assembly uses a programmed device mounted on a six-metre motorised rig. Gliding back and forth on the rig, the device is both “recorder” and “player”: at the end of a shoot, the camera is replaced by a projector and the “film” is ready for playback. The work does more than reproduce prayer: it also “performs” the social and religious structures of the site, making evocative use of 5.1 surround sound to create an uncanny experience. Mapped precisely to the mosque floor, the projected image of the carpet disappears into the real carpet. And the congregation, returning as observers, watch ghostly illusions of themselves at prayer.
Created and projected in each one of four mosques, Assembly enhanced the congregation’s self-awareness of the act of worship. The project highlights the social and architectural diversity of mosques in Britain, raising questions about social boundaries, while creating an opportunity for mosques to connect with the wider community.
The Venice installation of Assembly will include five films and interviews generated by the Assembly project, plus detailed 3D scans of Old Kent Road and Brick Lane mosques. Both films and scans will enter the V&A collection as permanent digital artefacts as a record of a significant period of informal religious architecture.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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