SELECTIONS delves into the world of acquisitions, exploring what museums and galleries have been adding to their collections in the past five years as well as featuring images and summaries of works and artists.
RULA HALAWANI
Bio: Palestinian, 1964
Title: Untitled 1-9, from Gates of Heaven series, 2013
Medium: Archival Print
Size: 120 x 120 cm (each)
Edition 2 of 5 + 1 AP
Acquired by: Middleburry College Museum of Art, Vermont
Artist represented by: Ayyam Gallery, Dubai
Acquisition date: 2021
Eight main gates surround the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City. For 2000 years those ancient walls beckoned visitors from all over the world, and home to Palestinians. A familiar and beloved site— the old city walls were a visual symbol of home, to walk upon, around, and inside. (A vibrant Palestinian culture remains inside the Old City walls). Yet, in 2002, Israel erected its separation wall and gates, separating Palestinians from their families, homes, and sites of Islam and Christianity. These gates of the Israeli separation wall I photographed around Jerusalem; I have never seen them opened. No longer their vibrant old city, not only are they barred from reaching it, but even the visuals have been caged and blocked…all they can see from their side is the ugly construction of concrete wall and closed mocking gates.
Rula Halawani, 2013
Courtesy of Ayyam Gallery
Credit line: Collection of Middlebury
College Museum of Art, Vermont.
Purchase with funds provided by the
Walter Cerf Art Fund.
A VERSION OF THIS ARTICLE APPEARED IN PRINT IN SELECTIONS #55