JADAR

★★★★☆

The Masjid Uncles of the Front Row is a collaboration between Practising Empathy In Mirrors (run by Afzal Khan) and Studio Teksi, (run by Saif Khan). The exhibition consists of tons of photos of multiple different Muslim Men and has playfully created a small prayer space, with very funny signs.

Two of the walls of Longsight Community Art Space are utilised in the space, with the photographs creating windows into these Masjid Men’s lives. The artwork is on your side, not in front of you, which feels like a nice visual welcome.

There are various print outs from travels in Palestine, suburban Paris, Malta and London, to name a few. The people in the photos seem exclusively in their 50s so for both the artists, being in their 20s, gaining knowledge and glimpses into a generation before (and perhaps their own futures) feels very intimate and authentic.

The part I liked most were the signs around the mosques, seemingly real, borrowed from their travels across the Masjids regarding double yellow line parking too. Not to speak French, and the allusions to God as CCTV.

Longsight Community Arts Space is a great centre run by people who live in Longsight. There’s a sense of ease in the exhibition space, and we were offered tea and water on arrival. There’s a zine for sale which puts the photographs in a more structured order, the glossy cover emblazoned with an uncle on his phone, in a very playful, outstretched pose. Two of the walls of are utilised in the space, with the photographs creating windows into these Masjid men’s lives.

At Bury Art Museum and Sculpture Centre, the exhibition is drawing on archival footage and sound recording to show the Masjid Uncles

The idea began as a zine and made its way to Bury as an audio-visual piece and now, for a limited run, as photos at the exhibition space of Longsight Arts Community Centre. It is really useful and interesting to see how an idea starts in one form and takes life in another form.

The Masjid can be a very male space, especially in Pakistani Muslim communities, and the exhibition presents it as a place where men congregate not just to worship but to commune too. A space where religion and friendships, those formed and not yet formed, intersect. It is my experience to not partake in that space as a Pakistani Muslim woman, so to have an insight into this is interesting. It does feel that the mosques are the homes for men, who may see themselves as muslims who work in a space, and provide for the homes. And the mosque is where they meet, to retire from the world temporarily, literally and metaphorically.

Both Khans speak fondly of this persona, which almost is shown as a stage of life that Muslim men arrive at, becoming “The Masjid Uncle”, saying “Whichever city I have lived in, the masjid uncle is a seemingly universal entity” in their article for STAT Magazine. I wholly agree with this: there is a way in which some Muslim men embrace religion after a certain age and become potential copies of each other, mimicking each other in their remembrance of Allah. The exhibition asks us to notice them in this space how they want to be seen: relaxing, reverent to God, smiling, spiritual.

The Masjid Uncles of the Front Runs runs at Longsight Community Art Space until February 26.