New York exhibition sees Arab-American artists explore the effects of displacement on memory

DUBAI: In “Night time,” the late Lebanese artist and thinker Etel Adnan’s 2016 assortment of prose and poetry, she explores how reminiscence serves as supply materials for our private and shared histories. “Is reminiscence produced by us, or is it us? Our id may be very possible no matter our reminiscence decides to retain,” she wrote. “However let’s not presume that reminiscence is a storage room. It’s not a device for with the ability to assume; it’s considering earlier than considering.”  

In an exhibition at CUE Artwork Basis in New York titled “A Thought is a Reminiscence,” which opened March 23, New York-based Palestinian-American artist and curator Noel Maghathe makes use of the art work of 4 Arab-American artists — Zeinab Saab, Nailah Taman, Kiki Salem and Zeina Zeitoun — to look at the identical theme that Adnan was writing about. Their works, made in quite a lot of media, together with images, sculpture, collage, animation and portray, concurrently have a good time and problem their Arab heritage. 

“The exhibition is deliberately centered on highlighting the experiences and views of Arab-American artists,” Maghathe tells Arab Information. “The exhibition explores themes of reminiscence, displacement, and migration, that are points which have affected the Arab world each at residence and overseas. The works on show problem viewers to contemplate how recollections might be disrupted by political upheaval and compelled migration and the way these experiences form one’s id.” 

The present explores the advanced relationship that the artists have with their ancestral homelands having grown up within the US whereas viewing the financial and political disruption happening within the Arab world. By their creative explorations the artists query their relationship to their ancestors.  

“The exhibition displays the viewpoints of the Arab group overseas by showcasing the experiences of Arab-Individuals,” Maghathe says. “By highlighting the hybridity of Arab-American id, the exhibition invitations viewers to contemplate how tradition and id are formed by migration and displacement.” 

In a big, embroidered artwork set up by Nailah Tamam titled “Taeta’s Tabletent,” she displays on a bit embroidered by her aunt through the Eighties that she by no means completed.  

“The material was discovered dirtied and stained from the various occasions it was picked up and put down and forgotten,” Tamam explains. “The remodeling of this tablecloth; its transformation from a blanket for consuming on to a shelter of curiosity threads collectively ancestral practices. I’ve pieced collectively her unfinished meditations with bits of myself.”  

The centerpiece of the work is a meticulously organized array of odds and ends collected by the artist through the COVID-19 pandemic, alongside different objects from her residence. 

“By the work I peer throughout the shelter to my ancestry for consolation and steerage, and look outwards, previous inherited fears, sicknesses and tribulations, in the direction of the past,” says Tamam. “The work is about ancestral collaboration — the transforming of recollections to include generational wants and nourishments.” 

Lebanese artist Zeina Zeitoun’s collage works additionally incorporate discovered objects. “These objects function a proof of existence; residence movies, childhood photographs, passport photographs, airplane tickets and handwriting,” she explains. “Some reconstruct a precise reminiscence with totally different viewpoints whereas others create a completely new reminiscence by way of the bits and items included.” 

Zeitoun has added textual content to most of the objects. Statements like: “Beirut is a poultry yard with peacocks and the stench of poultries; Jupiter swims in a metallic answer. The discharge is incoherent.” Within the middle of that piece — “This Is Not A Boarding Cross” is what seems to be a passport picture, maybe of Zeitoun, however the face is essentially obscured by textual content which reads: “Thanks for flying.” 

Zeitoun’s work challenges the belief of reminiscence as primarily based on actuality whereas additionally positing the potential for our energy to recreate recollections. 

“In so many circumstances, due to the burden of displacement and migration, recollections turn out to be virtually imaginary,” says the artist. “How can we all know our historical past and who we’re if our displacement and migration power us to neglect? This work holds a sense in time, constructs previous moments, and creates new ones for the sake of remembering.” 

The intention behind “A Thought is a Reminiscence” goes past the art work on show. Maghathe and the artists intend for it to behave as a catalyst to deliver the Arab-American diaspora nearer collectively.  

“It extends to the connections and relationships fashioned between the artists, viewers, and myself,” Maghathe tells Arab Information. “They lengthy for communal areas the place they’ll come collectively, and thru this exhibition many people are in a position to join and meet with one another for the primary time in individual and create a deeper sense of group.” 

As Maghathe stresses, the exhibition creates an area for dialogue and exploration round themes related to each the Arab-American group and the broader world. 

“By centering the views of Arab American artists, the exhibition offers a possibility for viewers to study and interact with the experiences of our group whereas additionally reflecting on the shared experiences of displacement and migration throughout totally different cultures and communities,” she provides. “It challenges stereotypes and offers a platform for group constructing and connection.”