Kazem inserts his tongue into objects found around the house: the rim of a jug, a keyhole and a garden sprinkler. The work presents a sensual overlap here in that the tongue can be used to taste but also to touch. We may, perhaps, taste the grainy metallic surface of the sprinkler as we look at ‘Tongue’, or feel uncomfortable at the sight of Kazem’s tongue navigating sharp or metallic orifices, yet there’s an undeniable erotic spirit in these images. Enjoyment and unpleasantness are entwined as a multiplicity, and this overlapping is present in a number of Kazem’s works from the ‘90s onwards, whether it is unpleasant sensations, memories or bodily residues that have their own hidden or primal pleasure. These works are some of the earliest examples of Kazem’s performative, conceptual practice and demonstrate his interest in finding alternative means by which he can measure or document his environment, an idea that has permeated subsequent works. In the case of ‘Tongue’, Kazem is handling the objects found in his domestic environment and applying an erotic and bodily experience to their inert materiality. Photographed by his mentor and friend, the artist Hassan Sharif, these works – deeply provocative in the Emirates at that time – have the two artists’ extensive conversations about body art and performance in this period as a subtext
