We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art stands and recognise the creative contribution First Australians make to the art and culture of this country.
Jananne Al-Ani / Iraq/United Kingdom b.1966 / Black Powder Peninsula (production still) 2016 / Single-channel digital video, 4:28 minutes / © Jananne Al-Ani / Image courtesy: Jananne Al-Ani
Jananne Al-AniBlack Powder Peninsula 2016
Not Currently on Display
Jananne Al-Ani’s work, Black Powder Peninsula 2016 is a loop, an endless cycle in which our viewpoint rises as if we are being lifted out of the landscape, and takes its name from gunpowder — introduced into Europe and the Middle East in the thirteenth century from China. A journey over the landscape of the United Kingdom, locations include the disused sites of military, economic and industrial power of the past and the vital infrastructure of today: a waste treatment plant, electrical substations, greenhouses and oil tanks. The film highlights patterns in the flow of power, resources and technology that link us all.
Jananne Al-Ani employs the aerial perspective and bleached, sepia-tones of World War One reconnaissance photography to reveal the imprint of history, conflict and occupation on the landscape.
Her earlier films conveyed a sense of falling to earth, recalling, in eerie slow motion, the perspective of a missile missing its target. Al-Ani highlights two different perspectives of the landscape in her work — a distant, technology-enabled and clinical view, and a view reflecting the aftermath of war. Al-Ani is acutely aware of the realities of war, particularly those highlighted in the media coverage of the 1991 Gulf War missile strikes on Iraq, her country of birth.