Output details

Last of the Dictionary Men: Stories From the South Shields Yemeni Sailors. A hybrid-project with several component parts: touring exhibition and museum installation (first shown 2008) plus catalogue (2013).

This is a hybrid project with several component parts: (i) a touring exhibition curated by Gharavi which launched at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Arts in Gateshead (5 weeks, April-May 2008), later spent 2 years touring Yemen supported by the British Council, then was shown in London in 2013 at the Mosaic Rooms of the Qattan Foundation; (ii) a museum installation comprising 14 photographic portraits by Yousef Nabil of the last sailors from Yemen working on British ships; and (iii) a catalogue of the exhibition/installation (submitted to the panel) composed and edited by Gharavi, including her essay documenting the installation/exhibition, with additional pieces from Yasmin Alibhai Brown, David Miliband MP, and author William Dalrymple. The project was funded by Arts Council England and the Heritage Lottery Fund. It was founded on extensive research. This included a research trip to Yemen, but at the core of the project were dozens of separate interviews with Yeminis in North East England (the subjects of the exhibition) as well as various commentators and experts. The work itself was inventive in its methodologies, recording, but not editing oral histories, combining historical material and contemporary art in a single exhibition, and in its involvement of the South Shields Yemini community in the making of the exhibition. This co-producing partnership with the community was highlighted by the HLF as an example of good practice. The exhibition led to the purchase by the British Museum of the works of art by Youssef Nabil which were commissioned for the project.