OUR HIEROMANTIC OBJECTS OF LOVE / KM21 THE HAGUE 2023

In Shani’s first exhibition in the Netherlands, she presents ‘Our Hieromantic Objects of Love’ an exhibition that promises to be a journey through Tai Shani’s universe, from absurd Madonna figures to magnified candles and crystal balls, from ceramics and glass to satin and velvet: the wide range of materials and details will make this a sensory experience. Architectural forms play a key role in the individual works themselves, and the same will be true of the exhibition space, with a big installation reminiscent of an Egyptian tomb at its centre. Shani connects the spiritual to the political, drawing viewers into a fascinating underworld.

Shani’s feature film ‘My Bodily Remains, Your Bodily Remains, And All The Bodily Remains That Ever Were, And Ever Will Be’ (2023) is an impressive piece of work about love, protest and the domain between life and death. All kinds of genres and eras pass by in colourful tableaux, from dreamlike technicolor to horror, from medieval scenes to a sci-fi future. As in Shani’s earlier films, poetic texts play a key role. She either writes them herself, or takes them from a range of sources. The film touches upon radical feminist protest movements, and also includes epic New Age-like passages from the fictional Book of Love. My Bodily Remains... has an original score by composer Maxwell Sterling and Richard Fearless (from the band Death in Vegas) as well as digital animations by Adam Sinclair, makers with whom Shani has been collaborating for years.

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KM21 have co-commissioned this film, along with Art Night, CCA Cincinnati and POR:TA Association.