Soo Bood, Bood / Come Jump, Jump
— 2019
Soo Bood, Bood / Come Jump, Jump is a five multi-channel video installation that uses traditional Somali dance as its starting point. The work examines the internal environment and logic of dance and its accompanying elements of movements and sound. Dance, as in all cultures, particularly in this Somali cultural context, call for many reasons, e.g., celebration, social connection, and self expression. This installation offers varied vignettes of the transformation and transcendence the body assumes as the dancers move, chant, clap and stomp in a unified frenzied rhythm.
In his practice, the artist’s engagement and preoccupation with rituals through repetition are related to his exploration of memory, archives and experiences of his community. Themes of discussion found in this installation, and in many other works by the artist, are constant discourse within the Somali diaspora communities such as the passage of knowledge, rituals and physical connection with their heritage as they forge a new life in their new homes.
