Group exhibition with works by Caline Aoun, Lamia Joreige, Omar Fakhoury, Raed Yassin, Stéphanie Saadé and Tamara Al Samerraei.

Performance

The Infidels Live performance at Marfa’ 9-12-21, 07 PM Composed by Raed Yassin Performed by Paed Conca (clarinet) and Sharif Sehnaoui (acoustic guitar). For more info, click here

Works

Raed Yassin, Mao, 2015 Silk thread embroideries on embroidered cloth 90 x 60 cm

Edition of 2+1AP A series of works that specifically deal with the chaotic outcomes of misplaced contexts, as well as the geographic transformations of collective human ideas. The works are constructed of ready made fabric prints of Chairman Mao in different situations and poses, with Islamic Qur’anic texts carefully embroidered on top of his image. The combination of these two seemingly disparate visual signifiers produces a confused portrait, one that simultaneously destroys the iconic meaning of Mao’s symbolic presence, or creates a new understanding towards it. The once vast stretch of the Islamic empire managed to disseminate the religion in places far from its origin, for example in China, often resulting in contrasting interpretations of the initial teachings and beliefs. Under Mao’s communism, the Muslim community in China was oppressed, and continues to be persecuted today. By inscribing the Qur’an on top of Mao’s iconic portraits, the visual revenge of this community can be realized. In the same breath, the chaos caused by the dissemination of ideas across different geographies also manifests itself within this obscure iconic fusion. 

Caline Aoun, Traces of Unseeable Excess, 2019 Carpets, ink 363 x 291 cm

Traces of Unseeable Excess was made by placing a functional water fountain on top of an industrial carpet. But instead of having water circulating in the fountain, Aoun has replaced it with inkjet printer Black ink. While the installation of the fountain was temporary, the carpeting underneath it, which soaks up the unavoidable splatter of ink through the exhibition’s run, ensures an enduring document of the work’s unfolding. Floating on the gallery’s far wall, the halo-like traces of the last it- eration of this experiment are spectral reminders that if the speed and volume of Data circulation continues to grow unabated such indifferent mottled stains might be all that is left for us to make sense of. 

Lamia Joreige, Nights and Days, 2007 Lambda prints mounted on aluminum 48 x 120 cm each

The series of prints ‘Nights and Days’, is part of a body of works relating to the war of summer 2006. Based on filmed and written notes made during that summer, Nights and Days expresses the passage of time, the awaiting but also the transformations made by the war. It reflects on representations of violence and war and notions of beauty versus horror. ‘Nights and Days’ explores narrative possibilities through the many layers an image presents, playing with text and repetition, referring to cinema, diaries and painting

Omar Fakhoury, Office Chair, 2019 Acrylic on canvas 180 x 200 cm

Among the different media he makes use of, from installation, sculptures and films, Fakhoury’s series of paintings simultaneously reveal and dissolve his figures of study. Daily life in his hometown, Beirut, provides him with figures, and the sequential factor brings forth a narrative. The materiality of the hand trace makes his paintings manifestly printed despite that he does not intend to relate to any expressionist project. Fakhoury found some chairs abandoned in Beirut while wandering – an activity that doesn’t come by chance in his chaotic town. He captured them up through photographs before portraying on separate canvases; their last function would be to form a parallel community. Empty and worn out, like most of the public spaces in this town, these wrecks are remnants of a succession of specific situations. They are a substitute for the people of Beirut who are using them in front of shops, construction sites, and houses to withdraw their bodies for a rest, for waiting, for meeting. 

Stéphanie Saadé, Moongold, 2018 Installation of 8 powder-coated steel structures on wheels with laser engraved plates, framed Moongold photographs (printed digital photographs with «moon gold» leaf.)

Moongold is a process on going for several years already where Stéphanie Saadé took photographs of the moon with her mobile phone, whenever she noticed it in the sky. The star is then gilded with Moon Gold leaf on the printed photographs, which form a diary of her travels, in close relation with the moon and its different phases. In Tripoli, the framed Moon Gold photographs are fixed on mobile structures, which the public could interact with and move around in space. The artist selected 30 Moon Gold, each taken on a different day and in different locations such as Beirut, Paris, Athens and Mexico. First organised chronologically, they were to be disseminated by the visitors of the show, as an ever-moving calendar. 

Tamara Al Samerraei, Night Guard, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 44.5 x 41.5 cm