Palestinian Contemporary Art
By Mike Derderian – The Star -26/5/2005

Even though their lives are surrounded by constant pain and suffering, a group of Palestinian artists who believe in the power of the message that art conveys chose to pick up brushes soaked in paint instead of stones drenched in blood. And rather than hurling those stones at the metallic surface of a tank, they chose to splatter colors mixed with a blend of their own souls and soil on canvas.

Those 15 artists exhibited their work on May 23 in an exposition entitled Visit Palestine: A Voyage through Contemporary Art at the 4 Walls Gallery in Amman . Produced on different mediums like mixed media on wood, henna and watercolor on paper, oil and acrylic on canvas and metal, and pyrography, which is a process of painting on wood by burning its surface the fifty paintings on display can only be interpreted as belonging to Palestine after asking each artist about the moment and thought that triggered his imagination and brush.

The modern approach makes it difficult to transmit the sense of time and place that was represented in each painting due to the common features that Palestine shares with Jordan, like people and land.

A hamlet on top of a hill side that overlaps a valley filled with rich fauna, a group of old women dressed in traditional veils and a Bedouin riding a horse – an image that is collaged on two paintings consisting of different colors - are all part of the similarities that both countries share.

Nasser Soumi, Kamal Boullata, Rana Bishara, Hani Zu'rob, Ibrahim Noubani, Tayseer Barakat, Vera Tamari, Samia Halaby, Khalil Rayyan, Nabil Anani, Khaled Hourani, Suleiman Mansour, Samir Salameh, Asad Azzi and Ahmad Cannan are the participating artists.

The exhibition was organized by the Palestine Telecommunication Company (PalTel) and will run until June 29.  It reflects the diversity of each artist in theme, technique and color.

One of the admirable paintings on display is by Suleiman Mansour, who chose to convey his image onto the surface of a metallic medium.  Even though Mansour's image is simple in theme - a little girl wearing a puffy dress sitting on the floor - the method in which he utilized the surface of the medium itself was unique. Scratching the girl's features and highlighting its details using bright oil colors Suleiman's end result is quite enjoyable. In addition to oil colors the dominant orange tone of the painting resembles that of oxidation, which in this work is the result of natural or artificial elements that may have been produced using acid.

Vera Tamari’s images that were produced on tracing paper using crayon colors reflect a scene that has become familiar on television channels and media reports: the images of mourning mothers' young and old. Mature lines that reflect an eye for sketching and producing expressive facial lines is what a person will mostly notice in Tamari's work.  Using a black back ground for her tormented faces, Tamari outlined the details using white crayon colors that helped in creating an image similar to a film negative waiting to be developed and reveal a fully colored image.

Those visiting this exhibition will not only enjoy the diverse themes it offers but will also have the chance to hone their imagination by delving into each artist's psyche and images that will in turn be engraved into their memories, so when they visit Palestine, they will be bound to bear in mind the symbols that were present in those paintings.