Sama: The Divine Listening Room - Performance by Arshia Fatima Haq + Maral

Artists Arshia Fatima Haq and Maral will perform Sama: The Divine Listening Room, an experimental pre-recorded sound and visual piece in the form of a call and response, with collaborative video work by Anum Awan and Amy Alexander. 

Imbued with fragrance and flowers, the immersive experience invites the listener to join in sama, the act of hearing the divine through deep listening and meditation common in Sufi dargahs or shrines.  

Sama: The Divine Listening Room is an ongoing series of installations by Arshia Fatima Haq since 2015. This fifth iteration of the work brings together Arshia with Maral in a call and response sonic sculpture that connects and bridges their cultural narratives, reimagining the idea of home within the diaspora.

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Arshia Fatima Haq (born in Hyderabad, India, based in Los Angeles) works through film, visual art, performance, and sound, in feminist modes outside of the Western model. She is interested in counterachives and speculative narratives and is currently exploring themes of embodiment, mysticism, and indigenous and localized knowledge within the context of Sufism. She is the founder of Discostan, a collaborative decolonial project and record label working with cultural production from South and West Asia and North Africa. 

 

 

Los Angeles-based artist Maral has formed a unique vision of club music, one that embraces her heritage and recontextualizes it for a new audience. Focusing on the interplay between sounds and culture, she combines Iranian folk field recordings with raw distorted beats, hoping it will introduce listeners to new ways of perceiving music. As a DJ, she enjoys exploring music from around the world and showcasing the hidden gems from the past and present. Through her music and involvement in the scene, Maral seeks to both educate and have a positive impact on others. 

 

Learn more about the WE LIVE! Memories of Resistance exhibition and related programming

This program is made possible by the Remsen Bird Fund and the Arts and Urban Experience Initiative, which is generously funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.