Thunder and Şimşek
British Council
Date: 2023
British Pavilion, Venice, Italy
Sculptural installation exploring islands and identities for the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2023
Installation views of Thunder and Şimşek
Photos: Taran Wilkhu © British Council
Alongside his role as a co-curator of Dancing Before the Moon at the British Pavilion for the 2023 Venice Biennale, JA Projects’ Founder, Jayden Ali, was one of the six UK artists commissioned to create work for the exhibition.
Thunder and Şimşek is an eight-metre long installation that reflects the hybridised cultures and rituals that have developed due to occupation, migration and the quest for better futures.
The work, which can be interpreted as both a set of pans or vessels, emerged as a response to Jayden’s own hybrid heritage and ancestral connections to the islands of Trinidad and Cyprus.
As twin pans, they represent both Trinidadian steel pan and Cypriot cooking traditions – two ritualistic acts that have influenced Jayden’s life – and two pastimes that evolved as a result of colonial influence; Steel pans are made from steel drums originally brought to Trinidad due to the island’s militarisation in the First World War, whilst Cypriot cooking customs – like those that have migrated to Jayden’s North London family home – stem from the UK’s governance of Cyprus as a Crown colony during the mid-20th century and a desire to escape the intercommunal tensions it created.
As twin vessels, they evoke both the horror and liberation of travel across waters, the confinement of ships used to transport enslaved people between continents, and the bottled optimism of those embarking on self initiated journeys to new lands, whether it be the Amerindians carving simple wooden vessels to journey from mainland Latin America to the smaller islands off its coast 7,000 years ago, or those of the Windrush Generation and Jayden’s Cypriot grandparents boarding relatively modern ships to post-war Britain.
Allusions to these narratives are captured in both form and materiality; the shape and proportions of the sculptures reference the scale of the human body, while the use of steel mirrors the make up of both musical and culinary instruments. The work’s name also reflects these themes: ‘Thunder’, a nod to the deafening sound of steel pan bands, and ‘Simşek’ (the Turkish word for lightning), evoking the heat and energy of the sizzling grill around which Jayden’s family gathered on weekends.
Installation views of Thunder and Şimşek
Photos: Taran Wilkhu © British Council
While working on Thunder and Şimşek, Jayden found the support of two West-London elders, ninety-three-year-old steelpan pioneer Cyril Khamai and Notting Hill Carnival leader Haroun Shah. Their stories of carefree invention, rooted in the twinned geographies of San Fernando, Trinidad and London inspired the distillation of seemingly disparate notes of influence into a new composition, and their guidance reinforced the need for these objects to be brought to life. In this respect, the twin pans are practical instruments of ritual and gathering, intended to be played and cooked upon.
Installation and fabrication views of Dancing Before the Moon
Photos: Taran Wilkhu © British Council / JA Projects © JA Projects
As well as being rich in meaning, Thunder & Şimşek is also a complex feat of architectural engineering. Suspending an eight metre, 800kg sculpture from the Pavilion’s portico without permanently intervening in the fabric of the building was a considerable challenge. JA Projects and a team of engineers, developed a non-intrusive frame that allowed the vessels to be clamped in place using only the columns of the façade. In this sense, each pan – each element of the hybrid identity – is mutually dependent, both sustained and limited by their relationship with Britain, and, ultimately and inescapably, defined by it.
“It would be easy to read this work as birthed in the context of horror. And to a certain degree it is, but there is also a tone of celebration. An expression of undiluted trauma would do a disservice to what I get from Britain as an institution, and how I am proud to be British. I am what I am. I live in a hybridised culture. I am the subject of it, and I recognise it has given me immense privilege.”
– Jayden Ali
Occupying the portico of the pavilion, demanding attention, even partially obscuring the plaque that identifies it as British, the installation emphasised the portico as a space of transition, of departures and arrivals – the ‘ocean’ across which the vessels travel between islands, from Britain to Trinidad and Cyprus and back again.
The work was one of six architectural scale installations which sat alongside a new film and soundtrack. The exhibition celebrated rituals – everyday social practices, customs and traditions – that define and add richness to our world and our built environment.
The commissioner, curators, and artists were awarded the only Special Mention for National Participation with the jury noting: ‘for the curatorial strategy and design propositions celebrating the potency of everyday rituals as forms of resistance and spatial practices in diasporic communities’.
Core Team
Jayden Ali, JA Projects, AKTII
Credits
Fabricators: Jamps Studio, HS Design Studio
Special Thanks: Cyril Khamai, Haroun Shah
Commissioner: Sevra Davis, Director of Architecture Design and Fashion at the British Council
Curators: Jayden Ali, Joseph Henry, Meneesha Kellay and Sumitra Upham
Visual identity: Templo
Particulars
Client: British Council