Lapdogs was installed as part of the exhibition Lapdogs of the Bourgeoisie at the Arnolfini in Bristol, and previously at the Townhouse Gallery in Cairo.
Here's the script
Lapdogs of the Bourgeoisie: Trailer 4min (approx)
Artist: Abbas Rahman
Mentor 1: Artist – Lara Baladi
Mentor 2: Art Critic – Tirdad Zolghadr
Mentor 3: Curator – Nav Haq
Theme music: - bold, strident
Off-screen: - noise and shouts of a street scene
Scene 1: Exterior
Exterior: Typical Cairo street café – men drink coffee and smoke shisha
Fade from black to ABBAS - a café waiter
VOICE OVER:
Meet Abbas Abd Allah, a 31 year old waiter from the town of Embabah
He left school at 12 and is now self employed
He’s about to enter a completely different world
Abbas to camera
ABBAS:
I love working in this cafe, it’s just what I do, you know
My Father used to work here too
You know, people come to the cafe tired and hungry
I bring then coffee or tea, and then they are revived, completely different
You know, transformed
Um, a bit like what you’re going to be doing with me
Scene 2: Interior
Interior: Cairo Art Gallery: Trendy glamour, power
Abbas walking (smartly dressed) with MENTOR1: LARA stopping, looking at and discussing artworks.
VOICE OVER:
For the next month, Abbas is aiming to become an international artist
And infiltrate first the Cairo, and then the International Art Scene
Interior: Abbas’s studio, easel, table chair and studio detritus.
Abbas - scruffy, at easel drawing, looking, painting
VOICE OVER:
He will have to learn how to make art
Abbas at easel
ABBAS:
I’m starting to realize, um, it’s starting to feel right!
Interior: Abbas’s studio, paintings, drawings and art books in shot.
Abbas-scruffy, with work in ‘crit’ situation with MENTOR 3: NAV
VOICE OVER:
And, he’ll have to learn how to talk about his art.
ABBAS:
Do you like this?
Its influenced by Tracy Emin
I’m trying to make it more,…………..’socially engaged’
MENTOR 3: Nav:
Enumerating with his fingers
Never ask if curators ‘like’ the work
Don’t say it's influenced by another artist
And,………it’s not socially engaged
Scene 5: Exterior/interior
Interior: The Barbers; Barber and his shop.
Abbas arrives – scruffy, with Mentor 1: Lara to get a more trendy shave and hair-cut.
VOICE OVER:
He’ll have to look the part, and promote himself
MENTOR 1: artist Lara
It looks really, really good
But we must do something about your hair
It doesn’t lend you enough authority
Interior: Exhibition/studio setting
Critic MENTOR 2: TIRDAD looking at an example of Abbas’s work.
VOICE OVER:
And take criticism on the chin
MENTOR 2: Tirdad
And that’s it really
Although you have a confident sense of colour, there is really no market for this
You might as well take it down, and set it on fire.
You’d better start again
Night-time travel dissolve to ‘hip’ Cairo gallery
Interior: a gallery exhibition Private View- glamour, drink and stylish crowd. Abbas - very smart. Team of three ‘top’ critics (the judges) looking at Abbas’s ‘work’
VOICE OVER:
If he gets through all that
He’ll have to exhibit in an exhibition alongside four other established artists
At a hip Cairo Gallery,
And his work will be assessed and judged, by top art critics.
Interior: Private view three critics – close-up of conversation
JUDGE/CRITIC 1:
And so, what was you intention with that?
Cut to Abbas back at work in the street cafe
VOICE OVER:
Will they spot him as a fake?
Aiding and abetting the wannabe Picasso, are three mentors from the international artworld
Scene 9: Interior
Whip-pan to locations of power-dressed Mentors in their professional location
Mentor 1: Lara in studio
VOICE OVER:
Artist Lara Baladi has an international reputation
She’s Lebanese and lives in Cairo
Office: Mentor 2: Nav power-dressed, on the phone
VOICE OVER:
Nav Haq the rising star of the curatorial scene,
that everyone dreams of working with.
Scene 11: Interior
Chic office: Mentor 3: Tirdad power-dressed, at desk with laptop
VOICE OVER:
Curator and renowned critic Tirdad Zolghadr writes for Frieze
The biggest international art magazine
Office/studio: Mentor 3 :Nav
MENTOR 3: Nav:
I really think this is an enormous challenge
We shouldn’t underestimate how difficult this is going to be
Scene 13: Exterior
Exterior: Abbas in street café
VOICE OVER:
Will they succeed?
ABBAS:
I don’t ever do anything to fail
And I don’t want to let myself,………. or my family down.
Roll Lapdog end-credits
Peruse a publication of the project published by Sternberg Press, a Hacked Manifesto, see the Lapdogs project page or my lesson in Political Economy.
30.04961, 31.238
Townhouse Gallery
3 Hussein Basha Al Meamari
Qasr El Nil
Cairo
Cairo Governorate
Egypt