Thousands turn out to view ‘Made in Palestine’ art exhibit

WW photo: G. Dunkel

The “Made in Palestine” exhibition of contemporary Palestinian art celebrated its opening in New York City on March 16, to a packed gallery with nearly 2,000 people attending. The show, which features works by Palestinian artists in Palestine and in exile—including Rana Bishara, Mustafa al-Hallaj, Suleiman Mansour and Vera Tamari—premiered in Houston in 2003 at the Station Museum, the home of curator James Harithas.

Harithas, who assembled the exhibition with the assistance of consultant and “Made in Palestine” artist Samia Halaby, was on hand with several of the exhibition’s artists for the gala opening celebration.

The exhibition made its debut in New York’s art world after two years of fundraising by the Al Jisser Group, a committee working to promote Arab art and culture in New York. Spearheaded by Halaby, Al Jisser hosted a series of fundraisers and events that built excitement about and awareness of the exhibition among the city’s Arab and Palestinian communities, their supporters and allies, and the city’s art community.

World-renowned musician Simon Shaheen donated a concert to the fundraising effort. Nibras Arab American Theater Collective and the Kazbah Project organized a series of one-act plays to benefit the show. Students from Pace University performed plays by Betty Shamieh and Noura Erakat, and members of the New Jersey Palestinian community organized a large benefit for the exhibition as Friends of Al Jisser, among numerous efforts in support of the show.

The years of work paid off with the opening of the show at The Bridge gallery, a space rented by Al Jisser. Thousands have so far viewed the exhibition, which has been extended until May 27. The show has also become a location for numerous events, including an evening for political prisoners from Palestine to the U.S., a panel of the exhibition’s artists, presentations by Palestinian health workers, a memorial for late Palestinian activist and leader Ali Kased and commemoration of the Day of the Land, film showings of Palestinian films and poetry readings by Suheir Hammad and Poetic Injustice.

The work in the show is a catalog of Palestinian history, creativity and expression. The prisoner art of Zuhdi al-Adawi and Muhammad Rakouie, Palestinian political prisoners who taught themselves drawing and painting in Zionist jails while under constant threat of solitary confinement and the confiscation of their materials if discovered, evokes traditional symbols of struggle for freedom and liberation and love for the land of Palestine, and evince a brilliant creative resistance that cannot be suppressed. Al-Adawi—who was freed in a prisoner exchange after 15 years in Zionist jails and lives today in Damascus, Syria—attended the opening and visited the New York area as the exhibition’s visiting artist and honored guest.

Tyseer Barakat’s chest of drawers is burned with images that tell the story of his father’s life through al-Nakba, the 1948 occupation of Palestine and expulsion of more than 800,000 Palestinians, with each drawer unveiling another chapter of his fatherPalestinian life.

“Blindfolded History,” by Rana Bishara, consists of glass panels silkscreened in chocolate with iconic images of oppression and resistance in Palestine; the chocolate appears to be dried blood, and there are 57 panels in her series, one for every year since al-Nakba.

Rajie Cook’s “Ammo Box” provides an imposing reminder of the power disparity in Palestine. A huge NATO munitions box is full of rocks—the weapons of Palestinian resistance that serve to highlight the massive military, political and economic aid provided to the Zionist occupation.

In Mervat Essa’s “Saffurya,” a photograph of the village from which her grandmother was exiled during al-Nakba hangs above ceramic sacks which seem to be yearning to return. Marked with numbers, the sacks mark the times the residents of the village have appealed to return to their homes and land—every time denied.

A series of small blocks, each emblazoned with a donkey in a different situation or amid a different material, comprise Ashraf Fawakhry’s “I am Donkey/Made in Palestine” series, a humorous piece identifying with the donkey, persistent in all situations. Samia Halaby’s large wall piece, “Palestine from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River,” is an abstract map of Palestine in colors that evoke gardens, mountains and the varieties of the land of Palestine.

The photographic prints by Rula Halawani capture devastation in Pales tine, produced as negatives in order to draw attention in a way news documentary photographs rarely do. “Stripped of their Land and Driven from their Homes,” by John Halaka, is a massive mural rubber-stamped with the words “Forgotten Survivors,” creating a portrait of refugees forced from their homes and seeking justice and return - an image that could refer to today’s Katrina survivors, to Iraqis seeking refuge from occupation, or to indigenous peoples forced from their land in North America as well as it does to Palestinian refugees.

The massive print, “Self-Portrait as God, the Devil and Man,” by Mustafa al-Hallaj, incorporates techniques reminiscent of ancient Egyptian art while exploring timeless themes, creating a fantastical modern mythological work that spans ancient themes and modern Palestinian life. Jawad Ibrahim’s small, dense images of Palestinian martyrs evoke the horror of life under occupation, while Noel Jab bour’s family portraits of Palestinian families who have lost fathers, mothers, and brothers to Zionist arms convey both the absence of the missing and the steadfastness of those who remain.

“Crossing Surda,” an installation by Emily Jacir, combines video and sound to evoke the atmosphere of the checkpoint Jacir crossed daily on her way to work. Suleiman Mansour’s large clay pieces, “I, Ismael,” line a central wall of the exhibition, depicting the revered ancestor of the Arab people in a cracking clay. A series of pen-and-ink drawings by Abdel Rahman al-Mozayen depict the destruction of the Palestinian refugee camp of Jenin in 2002, drawn into the embroidery of the dresses of Canaanite goddesses, making the images of destruction beautiful and referencing ancient Palestinian heritage.

Nida Sinnokrot’s “Rubber-Coated Stones” ironically provide “rubber-coated” rocks to Palestinians as counterpoints to the Zionist military’s “rubber-coated bullets” that have maimed many Palestinians while masquerading as human itarian “alternatives” to regular ammunition, while “West Bank Butterflies,” a piece mounted by Al Jisser Group based on Sin nokrot’s work in progress, turns a map of Palestine’s West Bank, marked by the apart heid wall, into butterflies ready to fly free.

Five massive, sheer silk dresses form Mary Tuma’s “Homes for the Disem bodied,” evoke the simultaneous resilient, steadfast presence of Palestinian women and their absence from much public discourse about Palestine. Vera Tamari’s “Tale of a Tree” presents an image of the Palestinian olive tree, iconic yet endangered, in a large photographic print and small ceramic forms.

The exhibition, drawing together multiple styles, evinces the creativity and resilience of contemporary Palestinian art. It is an exhibition of revolutionary art, brilliantly expressive and committed to a Palestinian creative and artistic presence whose power, integrity and vision cannot be denied or suppressed despite nearly 58 years of Zionist colonialism. Embracing Palestinian artists throughout Palestine and in exile, it presents a museum-quality view of Palestinian creativity.

“Made in Palestine” is open for public view at The Bridge, 521 W. 26th St., 3rd floor, daily from Tuesdays to Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., until May 27. For more information about the show and the Al Jisser Group, please visit www.aljisser.org.