Curator notes Vera Tamari: Born in Jerusalem 1945 Vera Tamari has chosen through her new project “Countdown” to explore the cycle of the daily routine. The concept is portrayed through a monthly calendar. In each day box of the calendar, Vera placed a photograph of a fried egg for a breakfast meal. The positioning of the fork and knife resemble the ticking arms of the clock, thus using another cyclic metaphor that is time. It is a representation of a ticking clock for the female, biologically and emotionally, as time passes leaving behind days and memories that in many times seem very similar.
Mary Tuma: Born 1961, Oakland, CA “Unsung Heroes” By Mary Tuma’s creation of five dresses, she is telling a personal story about five women. Each dress tells us a bit about the woman who wore it. How was her figure, how tall was she, what kind of taste she has, what colour she preferred…etc. Yet the absence of the human form, and the torn fabric of the dresses hung on the walls by nails, passes a feeling for us about the vulnerability, imprisonment and the controllability of these women, and by so doing, provides a metaphor for the status of women in society.
Mona Hatoum: Born in 1952 Mona Hatoum left Beirut in 1975 for a short visit to London. When war broke out in the Lebanon she found it impossible to return. In this video, letters from her mother in Beirut, written in Arabic, move across the screen. They are read aloud, in English, by the artist. Hatoum's mother is also heard, speaking openly about her feelings and sexuality, accompanied by images of her in the shower.
Sophie Halaby: 1912-1998, Jerusalem Sophie Halaby is one of the foremost modern Palestinian painters to receive formal training in the arts in the 1930s. Halaby was a prolific painter known for her landscapes and portraits. Her work is characterized by its sensitivity and harmony with nature. Part of her collection, which is presented in this exhibition, explores different perspectives of the female body through experimenting with nude figures. The female body was a major subject in her paintings and it is very interesting to observe the different ways and perspectives from which she addressed this subject. Moreover, Sophie explored different styles of painting which can be observed by her paint brushes and strokes.
Maha Dayeh: Born in 1976, Gaza Maha Dayeh is a young Palestinian artist who works from Gaza. In this exhibition, Maha participates with four paintings of the Gaza seashore. The first impression of the paintings is lively as they are highly expressionistic and colorful and address a traditionally romantic subject, “the sea”. Looking closer, the paintings picture an opposite vision of the sea, a closed one, an acute angle of the sea. The openness, the freedom, the infinity of the sea is absent. The sharp objects, the fence, the pointed corners pass a painful sense. The paintings are a strong reflection of the emotional situation of Maha living in Gaza , under siege and occupation.
Manar Zuabi: Born in 1964 Manar Zoabi’s performance piece is a visually powerful contemplation on the artist’s imposition of her hopes and passions upon that ‘blank space’ that confronts her. Finding herself caught ‘in between’ her own projections and those that precede and constrain them, forces her to consider how total transformation might be achieved. A transformation of a bright white space to a fully black stained space. What peculiarly signalizes the situation of woman is that she – a free and autonomous being like all human creatures- nevertheless finds herself living in a world where men compel her to assume the status of the other. Curator: Rula Khoury |