PERFECTION
2022
6-channel video and multimedia installation.
In 2021, former soccer star, David Beckham, signed a 10-year deal worth $277 million to be the global ambassador for Qatar.
Despite allegations of corruption and bribery, and despite well-documented human rights abuses, FIFA, the international governing body of football, awarded hosting rights to Qatar for the 2022 World Cup.
For the FIFA World Cup 2022 a slick advertising campaign featured Beckham, promoting Qatar as a progressive country.
The campaign was at odds with Qatar’s reality, where oppressive and opaque guardianship laws govern the lives of women. Where the LGBTQIA+ community is subject to criminal punishment of imprisonment and, in some cases, the death penalty. It also ignored the plight of migrant workers, who toiled in the equivalent of modern slavery conditions, and many of who died to construct the stadiums and infrastructure for Qatar to host the FIFA World Cup.
Taking on the ambassador role, Beckham ignored the inconsistencies between his own brand image and the realities of life in Qatar.
PERFECTION splices ‘David Beckham’s Qatar Stopover’ with the soccer legend’s social media posts, media clips and articles, advertisements, and human rights information.
PERFECTION cannot be taken in all at once. Watching the action on one screen means missing what is occurring on another. This is how it felt researching for the artwork. Following one lead distracts you from another.
PERFECTION was never going to be perfect.
Exhibition documentation by Emma Byrnes
www.emmabyrnes.com