Stretching over two and a half metres wide and just over 20 centimetres high, this leporello book is one of Etel Adnan's early works.
A leporello is a type of book with folded concertina style pages: that means that the book's pages collapse onto the next in folds which can reveal more or less, depending on how stretched or collapsed the folds are. Adnan had seen similar books and had been inspired by them on a trip to Japan.
This work, which is Untitled, is made of paper, inks and watercolour paints, which fold into a neat, slim, dark blue notebook. In this piece there are 14 folds which reveal 28 panels, once fully stretched. It is one-sided and the back of the leporello is left blank.
Adnan's practice includes poetry, painting, collage, tapestry, ceramics and film.
In this work Adnan uses a poem by her friend, the late American poet and painter Lawrence Ferlinghetti, titled Assassination Raga.
The original poem is an emotional outpouring of collective grief originally written by Ferlinghetti as a response to watching the funeral of Robert Kennedy on television.
In Adnan's work, lines from this poem are written across a backdrop of large, light brown hieroglyphic signs across the width of the folded paper which provides a backdrop to the text. Ferlinghetti's words run across the page in black ink with Adnan's added marks in different coloured inks: black, light brown, green and red.
The inks are used differently. In some places they have been applied lightly as a background to the text. In others they bleed through the paper. The poem merges into a painting through the repetition of the word Allah, which means God in Arabic. It is written in Arabic throughout the piece, accompanying Ferlinghetti's words. Allah is repeated both as a mantra and as a visual cue, ensuring the continuity of the piece.
Allah is written as a call and response to Ferlinghetti's line:
La illaha el lill Allah
A Koranic exhortation translated into:
There is no other God but God
which also appears in the poem.
Ferlinghetti's poem becomes a painting with Adnan's scribbles, shapes and colours. It becomes her piece, her take on her friend's words.
The leporello is a multi-sensory piece exploring collective trauma. The text, which is a mixture of images, colours and shapes turns into more than just words.
Writing, painting and mark-making work together to illustrate the messy emotions which unfurl into a manifesto of grief.
The writing is difficult to decipher, at times.
The letters, blotted ink stains and prose transport us sideways in a piece alive with the uncomfortable emotions around death.
Ferlinghetti's words speak of death, sound and force. They are like a random story made of vivid sounds and images: the sky, a plane, a blaring stereo, a tree and a sitar are diverse elements which assemble like a cacophony of sound that is reminiscent of jazz.
Adnan turns it all into a symphony, adding colours, shapes and marks. Arabic writing covers the width of the concertina book. Each fold of the leporello can reveal more or less of the text depending how stretched it is. Allah written in Arabic from right to left is overlaid with the poem in Roman script written from left to right.
In this piece Adnan leans on her Arab heritage to showcase her identity as a painter, a poet and a friend.
She transforms this two dimensional poem into what looks like a visually loud and dynamic film storyboard.
Integrating Ferlinghetti's words into her piece turns Untitled into a powerful collaboration. It illustrates the rich tapestry of migrations that have given American art its multifaceted identity.
Untitled was gifted by Adnan to Tony Marini, an Italian art historian and cultural activist also a friend of the artist and who had translated several of Adnan's literary works.
The journey of Untitled itself is a metaphor for the rich collaborations and pathways that result from friendship, languages and visual culture.
This audio description was written and recorded by Cina Aissa.
This is one of artist Etel Adnan's leporellos: delicate and intricate folded booklets covered in script, symbols and imagery. In this short film, Cina Aissa, Learning Assistant at Tate, takes a closer look at the work.
Speaking about her personal discovery of Adnan, Cina says:
With her heritage spanning Greece, Lebanon and Syria, Adnan brings in other languages, cultures and points of view into her prolific works across literature, poetry and visual arts. I had never heard of her even though she is still alive and practising art well into her 90s.
Feminist artists such as the Guerrilla Girls are celebrated for their work in fighting for the equal representation of women in art galleries, but for me this conversation only scratches the surface. When it comes to the experience of women of colour, we are struggling for so much more than simply to be treated equally to men -- we are struggling for our humanity. Many women of colour have to endure poverty while undertaking unpaid care and service work, all against the backdrop of a racist society. When women of colour do create art and build prolific careers, like Adnan, it’s rare that they become household names. Why haven’t more people heard of Etel Adnan? I was so excited to discover Adnan but also sad and angry to see how little she has been spoken of.
The second lens that I am reading Untitled through is one that sees it as a powerful piece of collaborative work that connects my journey with Adnan’s piece in terms of my experiences of migration and displacement. I am interested in the collaborativeness of the piece, using Ferlinghetti's writing and later donating the piece to Toni Maraini, it gives the piece a sense of displacement and travelling between people. It is a good illustration of the interdependence between humans in contrast to language of hatred which speak of migrants 'only taking' instead of contributing. Though I was not around when Robert Kennedy was assassinated, Untitled spoke to me of the collective grief and disorientation that comes with irreversible events that affect everyone. I was profoundly shocked by the attack on the twin towers in 2001 but I was equally shocked to see the anti-immigrant and Islamophobic sentiment rise subsequently across the world like a bad smell. Untitled helps me to remember that we are all affected when violence occurs. It is a piece that allows for multiple readings, weaving in different practises: transcribed Arabic holy verses, poetry, writing, drawing, mark making. It is a piece that touches me because it is alive with meanings and emotions.
This film has been created as part of the Terra Foundation For American Art Series: New Perspectives.
