The cast of one of the two films that make up this large-scale exhibition by Wael Shawky are all lined up in a room. They are gathered together in full costume next to the gallery where the third part of the major trilogy they appear in is screening on a loop. This is no red carpet Hollywood A-lister meet-and-greet, mind you. These actors are made of glass, fantastical marionettes that have their strings pulled by Shawky and many others to play out several hundred years of world changing history. .
Some of Shawkey’s creatures look like they might have been dreamt up by master animator Ray Harryhausen or puppet genius Gerry Anderson, or else appeared in episodes of 1970s era Dr. Who. Of course, such predictably western pop culture reference points belie the fact that Shawky’s creations are actually rooted in more ancient artistry. As too are the complex and at times horrible histories he depicts that show off the umbilical links with the all too real climate of occupation and invasion that exists in the Middle East today.
To present such vital retellings in the trappings of sword and sand adventure yarns is a bold and ambitious achievement. To do so without ever telling the viewer what to think but letting the work speak for itself makes an even more powerful statement.
On screen, Cabaret Crusades III: The Secrets of Karbala (2015) is a sweeping two-hour epic delivered with the cinematic grandeur of something by Cecil B DeMille. As its colourful stars chart their way through the twelfth century Crusades in a stately conspiracy of intrigue and shifting alliances, Shawky’s film tells a very different story to the hand-me-down myths of Richard the Lionheart that Western depictions of the time are built on.
By contrast, Drama 1882 (2024), made for the Egyptian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, is performed by human actors. Over its forty-five minute duration, the film’s large cast plays out an impressionistic version of events in Alexandria that led to Britain’s occupation of Egypt. Filmed in an open-air theatre in the city, the performers are choreographed with such mechanical regimentation as to resemble an expressionist chorus line. Their multi dimensional shape-throwing formations are set against 1970s SF comic strip styled dioramas and brought to life as a palm court operetta.
As with Cabaret Crusades, Shawky goes against the grain of received western interpretations of history. Talbot Rice director and curator of the exhibition Tessa Giblin writes in her introduction to the show how Shawky “destabilises any singular authority over historical authenticity by embracing the irregular, subjective and contradictory accounts that represent the formation of history.”
Giblin goes on to point out that “Shawky premieres Drama 1882 in the UK as blood continues to be shed in the Middle East, stories are revised and accounts changed, calling into question the very idea of truth.”
The dialogue of both films is in Classical Arabic, regardless of whether the character talking is Christian or Muslim. Accompanied by subtitles, this again turns the tables on western culture, in which Hollywood depictions of war used to have all sides talking in either drama school English or movie star American.
The two films are driven by Shawky’s own musical scores, which channel Middle-Eastern chorales to deliver a sub Brechtian commentary. To avoid the confusion of a Game of Thrones type family tree, each bizarrely realised character’s name is helpfully captioned alongside the timeline and setting, which cuts between Cairo, Damascus, Aleppo, Hittin and Jerusalem.
Shawky’s double bill may be the main feature here, but it comes with a full supporting programme. While the marionettes reflect the sheer scale and wide-screen ambition of the films, on the wall, a hand carved gold leaf model of the Siege of Jerusalem suggests a nation hung out to dry. Upstairs, a series of Zenned-out drawings, sculptures and national flags rendered a neutral grey show off Shawky’s behind the scenes thinking.
Spoiler alert, there is also a surprise secret origins story embedded into the show. This comes by way of the fact that the gallery where Shawky’s work is being shown is named after twentieth century archaeologist, art historian and Islamic and Byzantine scholar, David Talbot Rice.
While Oxford educated Talbot Rice came from the English establishment, as the Watson Gordon Chair of Fine Art at the University of Edinburgh for almost forty years, his interests saw him lead the excavations of the Great Palace of Constantinople in the 1950s. He also helped uncover and restore the Byzantine frescos in the Hagia Sophia, Trabzon in Turkey. Crucially, in 1958 Talbot Rice oversaw a major exhibition of Byzantine art as part of Edinburgh International Festival.
Having had ambitions for an arts centre within the University, Talbot Rice died two years before the gallery named in his honour opened. Half a century on, Shawky’s exhibition might be regarded as a form of coming home or reclaiming. Either way, Talbot Rice’s legacy too is history, whoever is doing the telling. As Shawky’s characters sail off into the sunset towards a very messy future,his films remain a brilliantly realised counterblast to received orthodoxies delivered with spectacular artistry.
Wael Shawky, Talbot Rice Gallery until 28thSeptember
The List, August 2025
ends
Comments