TERRA UN(FIRMA) AT TABARI ARTSPACE

TERRA UN(FIRMA) AT TABARI ARTSPACE

The selected works for The Land by Samah Shihadi turn towards the physical space and natural environment as a site of connection, displacement and contestation, which the artist conflates with notions of the home, family and collective identity. Each large-scale work selected for the exhibition has been painstakingly produced over several months.

Samah Shihadi, Home, 2019. Charcoal on paper, 200 x 150 cm

TERRA UN(FIRMA) AT TABARI ARTSPACE

"The Living", Shihadi is preoccupied with the female experience, and the struggles spanning honour killing, marginalisation, social silencing, and acceptance, that women continue to confront, internationally. Her figurative works, often turning inwards, include self-portraiture as well as reflections upon the women in her inner circle. Beyond those that she encounters in her daily life, such as her mother and sister, the artist draws from art history and impactful feminist figures from the art world. Women artists such as Shirin Neshat, Frida Khalo and Georgia O’Keeffe are palpable influences who have, like Shihadi, been challenged by their social circumstances and have taken to art to synthesise and articulate their gendered experiences from a sublime space.

Samah Shihadi, Sticks and Stones, 2018. Charcoal on paper, 140 x 190 cm

TERRA UN(FIRMA) AT TABARI ARTSPACE

These influences spill out into works such as The watcher (2020) that see a rooster, substituting Khalo’s monkey, and twisting a rope around the artist’s throat. The rooster serves as a representation of male dominance and the ongoing silencing of the female voice. Other works such as The Good Shepherd (2020) see the male depicted as a sheep in reference to the Middle Eastern adage which suggests a man that openly engages with a woman in equal dialogue is weak; pointing to the frustrations and limitations men also face in striving for equality.

Samah Shihadi, The Good Shepherd, 2020. Charcoal on paper, 70 x 70 cm

TERRA UN(FIRMA) AT TABARI ARTSPACE

The Land The landscape is a backdrop upon which the concerns of social groups play out and fall in and out of focus with shifts of power, in this sense Shihadi’s natural surroundings are of deep concern to her. Shihadi’s family were farmers before the dislocation from their village and this deep-rooted and powerful connection to the land is unleashed through rich symbolic elements.

Samah Shihadi, Terra Studies 3, 2020. Charcoal on paper, 30 x 30 cm

TERRA UN(FIRMA) AT TABARI ARTSPACE

In a series of smaller 30 x 30 studies, the cactus or sabre is, for example, employed as a symbol of Palestinian resilience, indeed, Palestinians often refer to the plant as a marker of their ‘patience’ which they must practice in their daily lives. While in other works her country’s ubiquitous olives speak out to confirm the artist’s cultural identity.

Samah Shihadi, Terra Studies 14, 2020. Charcoal on paper, 30 x 30 cm

TERRA UN(FIRMA) AT TABARI ARTSPACE

Samah Shihadi, Terra Studies 20, 2020. Charcoal on paper, 30 x 30 cm

TERRA UN(FIRMA) AT TABARI ARTSPACE

Samah Shihadi, Terra Studies 18, 2020. Charcoal on paper, 30 x 30 cm

TERRA UN(FIRMA) AT TABARI ARTSPACE

Samah Shihadi, Terra Studies 11, 2020. Charcoal on paper, 30 x 30 cm

TERRA UN(FIRMA) AT TABARI ARTSPACE

For Fig (2020), the artist continues to meditate upon religion and its moral restrictions, adopting the fig leaf as a metaphor from Christianity, which is widely known to convey the covering up of an act or object, perceived to be distasteful, with something innocuous in appearance. In the Christian book of Genesis, for example, Adam and Eve take the leaf to disguise their nudity after eating the forbidden fruit. The artist also zooms out of her social sphere in order to explore natural elements in relation to wider topics such as gender violence, censorship and the social policing of women. In Under Threat (2016) the pear, perched under a row of knives in the kitchen, embodies the female form and the proliferation of familial violence that Shihadi witnesses in honour killings that continue to plague societies across the Middle East and beyond.

Samah Shihadi, Under the Threat, 2016. Pencil on paper, 50 x 35 cm

TERRA UN(FIRMA) AT TABARI ARTSPACE

For Terra (Un) Firma the seven selected paintings by Michael Halak capture the faces, social scenes and landscapes which immediately surround him.

Michael Halak, Life in Bubble, 2018. Oil on canvas, 120 x 100 cm

TERRA UN(FIRMA) AT TABARI ARTSPACE

The artist understands thyme as an emblem of origin and freedom, but as soon as it becomes confined to flowerpot, it loses its freedom; pulled up from its original soil to become a marginal decoration.

Michael Halak, Thyme, 2020. Oil on canvas, 85 x 60 cm

TERRA UN(FIRMA) AT TABARI ARTSPACE

In these works flora and herbs such as olives and thyme prevail as a symbol of Palestinian identity but also speak to the universal viewer.

Michael Halak, Olives and Thyme, 2019. Oil on canvas, 40 x 40 cm

TERRA UN(FIRMA) AT TABARI ARTSPACE

Michael Halak, Cracked Olives, 2018. Oil on canvas, 140 x 100 cm

TERRA UN(FIRMA) AT TABARI ARTSPACE

His landscapes are charged with the central tension that shapes both his life and his work – the question of the connection between man and place, and related concerns regarding presence and absence, identification and disidentification, visibility and invisibility. His scenes bespeak a process of bifurcation that gives rise to two separate yet inseparable worlds.

Michael Halak, Haifa (Wadi El Salib), 2020. Oil on canvas, 80 x 60 cm

TERRA UN(FIRMA) AT TABARI ARTSPACE

At first glance his paintings may appear as harmless depictions of rural landscapes or social settings such as the Haifa marketplace however, in a similar manner to Shihadi, his works are loaded with symbolism and multifaceted meanings. Works depicting the old streets of Jerusalem, for example, appear to relay routine daily life, however, upon closer inspection symbols of conflict and contradiction such as soldiers and flags rise to the fore.

Michael Halak, Jerusalem, 2020. Oil on canvas, 70 x 50 cm