Middle East & Africa
Heba Amin
As Bird’s Flying
2016
Heba Amin, As Bird’s Flying, 2016
Heba Y. Amin’s 2016 film As Birds Flying uses found footage from drones in an allegorical response to a 2013 news story of a migratory bird with an electronic device attached to its ankle who was detained by the Egyptian authorities, suspected of espionage. For the artist, the story represents the paranoia and suspicion endemic to a context of global surveillance. Filmed from a bird’s-eye perspective, or a spy’s perspective, the images span the savannas and wetlands of Galilea. Imbued with humour, and acutely politically aware, the film connects stories of militarisation, prophecy and imperial histories through layered references and revelations.
Heba Amin is a multimedia artist who works with political themes and archival history, using film, photography, archival material, lecture performance and installation. Amin grounds her work in extensive research that looks at the convergence of politics, technology, and architecture, particularly in the context of the Middle East and its relations to the West. She looks for tactics of subversion and other techniques to undermine consolidated systems and flip historical narratives through her critical spatial practice.