Exhibition

Helen de Main

Partition - Whitewash

Aluminum, papier mache, 220 x 170 x 40cm

Partition - Whitewash is a hand made re-creation of a type of barrier, consisting of a fence and a screen that takes formal cues from the multitude of fences and barricades that proliferate the Palestinian landscape. The fence part of the structure has undergone a process of distortion, whereby the artist subjected its two horizontal bars to a physical force in her studio. The fence was then re-assembled, and each of the upright bars cut to individual size, so as to coherently follow the new contour of the fence, creating a certain impossibility to its form.

The screen that stands behind, rectangular in construction, has been covered with a thin layer of papier mache, that has then been painted white, creating a visual blockade in the gallery, making it difficult to view other works from a distance. This delicate layer has been adhered to the frame in a concentric but irregular pattern, and is made up from strips torn from Israeli tabloid newspapers.

The generic form of the fence, symbolising separation, demarcation of territory and protection, has been humanised through it’s sculptural process, these irregular actions suggesting human and individual strength and resilience, whilst highlighting fragility.

Maj Hasager

Would you Stay - if you could leave?

7 colour photographs 30 cm x 40 cm, wall text

Would you Stay – if you could leave? consists of seven images recently photographed in the West Bank and the question addressed in the title written on the wall next to the images. The photographed sites show landscapes filled with man-made obstacles, and reflect the absurdity with which they cut through the horizon and divide the Palestinian landscape. The images all contain elements of blocking or restraining, which complicate movement– either on a concrete physical level or on a psychological one. By addressing the impossibility of movement and the difficulty of living under occupation, the question: “Would you stay – if you could leave?” challenges the audience to reflect upon their position and their relationship to the land of occupied Palestine, and questions the notion of choice. What does it mean to have a choice when living under occupation – where basic human rights are lacking and international conventions are violated?

Helen de Main

What Lies Between

Pencil on paper, stone, plastic, concrete and aluminium.

What Lies Between is an installation that consists of three pencil drawings of the road tunnels of Gilo and Har Ha’softim and two water pipes, one of plastic and one of stone, all of which are presented on concrete structures.

The tunnels depicted in the drawings have been selected for their location on the outskirts of Jerusalem, and their demarcation of a point that most Palestinian’s are unable to pass. The drawings themselves have been paired down to a single line, becoming diagrammatical or plan like in their form. The void of the tunnels have been shaded heavily in pencil, black and shiny in character, appearing like dark eyes glaring out from the images.

Of the two water pipes, the original is a section of pipe that was salvaged from a site in Ramallah and the second Hebronite stone carver, Maher Shaheen, has carved for the artist in Palestinian stone. The water pipes are presented on a concrete block, similar to those used in checkpoints and roads blocks, and provide a platform on which to offer the objects to the audience. Placed in relation to the drawings the pipes themselves become suggestive of tunnels running side by side, but significantly the stone pipe has not been hollowed out and appears blocked in form.

Altogether this collection of objects and drawings, call to reference Palestinian cities of the North and South, and the process of separation and fragmentation that is being caused between them through annexation of land and imposition of architectural structures.

Maj Hasager

Days Pass By

Sound installation (English/Arabic), duration: 13 min

Days Pass By is a site specific sound installation where fragments of stories are heard inside the 2000 year old cave inside the gallery. The stories are taken from interviews with young Palestinians and recount tales about the villages their grandparents fled in the 1948 war. During this time people sought refuge in caves and under trees for temporary shelter as they were escaping the war zone. The text spoken in the sound installation describes four different stories, told from the perspective of the refugees; the moment of leaving everything behind, fleeing a zone of war and how different incidents and routes came to define their future as the days passed by.

The spoken text focuses on the time between 1948 and 1952 with the establishments of the UNRWA refugee camps in the West Bank, and with this the shift in status from people who have been temporarily displaced to being officially categorised as refugees.

Symbolically the cave appears as a space for confession or as a keeper of secrets, and in this case it functions as a place for accumulated and preserved longing. None of the stories are related to the actual site of the cave, but the stories remain echoes of the past contained within the present.