The exhibition consists of two large installations Going Nowhere, in the small Gallery. Hanging Shadows in the large Gallery.

Going Nowhere
All seven figurative paintings in acrylic on canvas and other mixed-media date back to the late 1980’s and the first Intifada. They are based on the artist’s observation of life within the Shufat refugee camp. The paintings, while reminiscent of the social realist style, are unrestricted by its formal presentation. The artist deconstructs the original painting into seven works. In the black and white charcoal drawing he reveals the recycled UNRWA burlap sugar ration sacks which he used as a canvas which refer to Palestinian resilience and steadfastness. In another painting, he examines the exploitation of the suffering of refugees and notions of authenticity by appropriating the vinyl used in commercial advertising as a canvas for the largest of the seven pieces. The oversized bicycle, assembled by the artist using recycled material from the camp, represents the hand-made contraptions refugees make for leisure or work.

The figures depict individuals he encountered in the refugee camp. The calmness of two girls playing with the rope underscores the anguished expression of the mass of humanity huddled on a single bicycle. The oversized peddler, weighed down by his heavy load, portrays the overcrowded conditions in the camp and the years of suffering of the refugees while waiting to return to their home. The massive legs and feet in the foreground draw our attention to the driving force propelling the group to freedom. In contrast, the stationary bicycle’s front-wheel rotates endlessly going nowhere, and alludes to the passage of time while its style and simple construction underscores the Palestinian refugee reality, that is generations trapped in a time warp waiting for repatriation to their homes. With the passage of time even their clothes take on the dusty color of the camp grounds. In this installation, Al-Malhi skillfully combines elements of time and space to express the humanity of Palestinians, his work provokes the viewer to question and explore the physical relationships within the space of time.

 Hanging Shadows
In his recent works, Al-Malhi invites the viewer to engage with his paintings and sculptures in the most essential and reductive terms. His substantial abstract paintings portray his explorations with the play on light and colour. This is evident in all the works assembled in the large gallery where he uses different techniques, from the vibrant colored canvases with sweeping brush strokes to the two-tone monochromes. The art works in this gallery are more conceptual, the figures are stripped of their subjectivity and all that remains is their ghostly memory. Apparitions with phantom like imagery are delicately rendered on muli-toned monochromatic surfaces. These apparitions (al Tayf) hover beyond time and space. In these works the artist’s objective gaze is more detached, as if influenced by his move from his home in the center of the refugee camp to its periphery. Small plaster figures with their silhouettes on the canvas are gracefully suspended on long strings, their sinuous bodies in nimble descent, while painted pseudo-shadows on the canvas betray their true helplessness. Al-Malhi exquisitely painted shadows of falling figures expose their vulnerability, their twisted formations denote their emotional condition, succumbing to gravity, their fall is tortuous and horrifying. The nightmarish fall into the abyss is constructed by Al-Malhi in yet another canvas, this time without figures, in which two large cubes bestride a void. The wax-cast sculptured lead figures, with silver and bronze finish, are clustered at the base of the painting. Their seemingly strong muscular appearance is deceptive; their body postures echo their emotional state with arms stretched out in beseeching, demanding or conceding gestures reflect helplessness and isolation. Al-Malhi’s philosophical exploration of self and identity clearly demonstrates his talent as a keen observer of the universal human condition.©

 Salwa Mikdadi