EXCRESCENCE (2020)

Overview

EXCRESCENCE unfolds as a visceral psychogeographic drift between Dubai and Chicago—two urban landscapes in perpetual flux. Talal Al Najjar constructs a nonlinear visual language that mirrors the tensions of bodily displacement, infrastructural detritus, and digital overstimulation. Shot across transcontinental terrains, the film threads speculative decay with lyrical moments of stillness, mapping the uneasy growths—both literal and metaphorical—that emerge from imposed systems. The title itself evokes surplus and rupture, echoing the film’s investigations of forms that persist beyond function. Interweaving handheld twitches, environmental noise, and crowd surveillance, EXCRESCENCE challenges viewers to navigate spaces where organic and synthetic collapse into each other. It is a document of unease, and a search for grounding amidst the excess. Commissioned by Daniel H. Rey for Art Jameel, 2020.