By Any Other Name
By Any Other Name, (13 min video) by Joshua Hossain Hashemzadeh
By Any Other Name, is a video installation originally created as part of a public performance salon, in Culver City, CA, hosted by Klowden Mann Gallery in 2017. The artwork’s title, sourced from Shakespeare’s, Romeo and Juliet, alludes to the often-problematic use of labels, and their inherent biases within western media. Reflecting on personal experiences and the historical reporting on acts of “terror” or “terrorism,” we find a disproportionate correlation between these classifications and the portrayal of Muslim citizens. Presenting a type of cultural prejudice that loosely mirrors the disdain and rivalry found in the late author's fabled story.
Being a mixed-race individual of Iranian descent, and raised predominantly by Islamic immigrants, I think of this work as a play between my body’s physicality and the spoken word of others. Having grown up as a witness to the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent shift in cultural disposition towards Islam, I thought deeply about the use of language as a tool for social classification. The artwork’s initial iteration presented the piece via laptop computer as it sat atop an unattended cardboard package, beneath a public commuter-rail station – A synonymous signifier for danger within public congregations. Focusing on only my mouth and increasingly chaotic annunciations, the video aims to trace the noise of ones’ environment and the ways in which different bodies hold varied connotations within that space.
