Jamil Yamani
video/installation artist
Speaking in 1984, on the launch occasion of an initiative to send a ship to escort people fleeing in boats in South East Asia, Michel Foucault said:
We must reject the division of labour so often proposed to us: individuals can get indignant and
talk; governments will reflect and act. […] Experience shows that one can and must refuse the theatrical role of pure and simple indignation that is proposed to us.
Jamil’s experience of resettlement is firmly embedded in his immediate family, and it is a focus of his artistic concerns, Jamil’s family are Third generation East Africans, his mother was born in Kenya, and father in Tanzania. While his mother’s family was originally from India, his father’s was originally from Yemen. From Africa they emigrated to England, where both he and his sister were born. The family moved to Australia when he was five years old, where they now reside in the Western region of Sydney.
Jamil continues to explore migration, identity and other related themes within his work. While he was originally apprenticed to Professor Ernst Fuchs, in Vienna, Austria as a painter, he went on to complete a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honours First Class from the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales. He majored in Time Based Art, an area in which he still practices today, binding technology with a special interest in social phenomena.
His work has been exhibited at ARTSPACE, Centre for Contemporary Art, Sydney, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, Perth, Performance Space, Sydney, Customs House, Circular Quay, Sydney, Space 3, Sydney, COFA Exhibition and Performance Space, UNSW, Sydney.
His collaborative work has been exhibited in Taipei, Taiwan, Broken Hill, NSW, Gallery 4A, Sydney and Electrofringe, Newcastle. His screen-based work has been shown in Sydney and internationally, and he has given occasional guest lectures most notably at the Sydney arm of Boston University, USA. He has also collaborated with Professor David Malin to create the first new media visual component to accompany the work of a major Australian Composer (Ross Edwards) and presented in pre-eminent concert venues including the Adelaide Town Hall and the Sydney Opera House.
Jamil works in IT support at the College of Fine Arts, UNSW where he also lectures in Computing. In addition to this he works as an editor, authors DVDs and does special FX work usually for other artists working with video. Earlier in 2003 he worked on Politic Noir/Film Blanche, a Geczy/Parr collaboration. (Mike Parr/Adam Geczy)
Jamil Yamani is participating in
Special Selection’06
Title: All Quiet on the Western Front. video, 2005, loop