Urok Shirhan: GR/AND M/OTHER TONGUES

Departing from the fact that both of my grandmothers were illiterate, “GR/AND M/OTHER TONGUES” delves into an investigation of 1930s and 40s radio practices in Iraq and Palestine under British Colonial rule.

Through historical as well as speculative research informed by family stories and anecdotes, I want to take a closer look at what it means that both of my grandmothers’ relationship to language was purely sonic: oral and aural. In other words, because they were illiterate, they had no relation to the written word, emphasizing the tongue as the primary instrument of language, alongside the ear.

Oscillating between the personal/anecdotal and the grand/magnanimous; between single, un-amplified voices and the loud voices of the masses; between the orchestrated voice of state power, and the forgotten cry of resistance; and all the nuances and semitones in between.

My own relationship to language and a “motherland” is unstable, to say the least. Having been born into my parents’ exile, I have never set foot in Iraq, my so-called country of origin. My “mother tongue” or “native language” is Arabic, but I have been losing my literacy over the years growing up in the West. Can you lose your mother tongue? What kind of other tongue(s) do you get instead?

For this project the focus will be on the radio, mouth, and ears, rather than eyes. What happens to our speech when we prioritize listening over seeing? How is being sonically “tuned in” collectively while listening to the radio, together in space, in-real-life (IRL), different from listening together “live” and in-real-time (IRT)? What kinds of solidarities are possible across distance?

As part of the project, I want to develop a new body of work looking at the phenomenon of the “Mother Tongue” and “Other Tongues”.