The Wall & the Check Points Emily Jacir, Tareq al Ghoussein, Rula Halawani & Dana Erekat Four artists interpret “the wall” and translate life across the many checkpoints throughout their occupied homeland – Palestine. In the two-channel video installation "Crossing Surda (a record of going to and from work)," Emily Jacir offers perhaps the most recognizable interpretation of land divided up into physical boundaries, while In her installation "Where We Come From"; consisting of photos, related texts, and a DVD projection, the artist documents the wishes and the fate or status of people who are not allowed to cross the checkpoints, and then what she did in order to fulfill each wish. In her series of photographs, Rula Halawani follows the construction of “the wall” which divided her road to work. In her images the skies are weighed down with fear and ugliness, but one can sense the artist’s promise to her homeland. Tareq al Ghoussein’s images investigate barriers, land, longing and, ultimately, belonging, evoking the artist’s awareness as to how these inform, shape and define each other. Dana Erekat’s photos capture with simplicity and depth how at a time when the occupied land’s Road Map is being redefined by walls, barriers, and destruction, the human body and mind adapt to these physical barriers: braving the threat of insanity by confinement and the threat of a soldier’s bullet, while waiting to cross.
The Khalid Shoman Foundation |