A
photo exhibit about Palestine brings the landscape, the human spirit, and the
culture to life in 36 images featuring joy, laughter, and suffering.
Mind,
Body and Soul is an art collection of three artists who recorded glimpses of
life in the Palestinian territories and reflections of occupation on the
inhabitants. Only one of the three artists is Palestinian.
The
exhibit, which kicked off in January, 2003, toured eight U.S. cities in Ohio,
Florida, and Wisconsin before coming to Chicago from September 5 to 21. It is
scheduled to continue its travel until the spring of 2004, going to the
northeastern states and then the West Coast of the U.S.
Mind
represents the Palestinian culture as it is, reflecting on how the Palestinians
lead their everyday life. Body reflects the beauty of the landscape, and Soul
depicts the affliction of Palestinians under occupation.
The
exhibit is organized by Palestinian Humanities and Arts Now (Al-Phan), a new
emerging Chicago-based organization concerned with advocating the Palestinian
cause through art and culture. The abbreviation is also taken from the Arabic
word al-fan, which means art.
“What
the exhibit does is that it humanizes the Palestinian people,” says Khaled
Taha, Director of Al-Phan, to IslamOnline.
According
to Taha, the exhibit presents the human face of the Palestinians, especially to
the American viewers, who usually miss out on this side in all the information
that they get about the region and in the midst of all the violence going on in
the occupied land.
“Art
engages those on the fence,” says Taha.
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Palestine
Children take a moment after the IDF massacres
in Jenin to try and play like kids should.
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Steve
Sabella’s pictures for the
most part present the Mind of the Palestinians, capturing the joy and
spontaneity in children’s play and laughter. His contribution to Mind, Body
and Soul is only part of earlier works that he presented for the United
Nations and its different institutions, including the UNDP and UNICEF.
Born
in the Old City of Jerusalem, Sabella focuses on the facial expressions evident
in most of his pictures featured in the exhibit. From school pictures of smiling
girls, to children sitting on rubble after the Jenin Massacre in 2002, he
discloses the delight of the spirit when children forget for a few moments that
they are under occupation. Even in his photos taken right after the Jenin
Massacre, a sense of speechlessness and maybe a sense of loss, but not anger or
violence, reflect the inner feelings of his individuals.
Luke
Powell’s work reminds us
still that Palestine remains the land of peace and serenity. He captures the
essence of the Body of the Palestinian countryside, like most of his other
images that illustrate landscapes in intimate and tranquil scenes that almost
always contain small figures. When a book of his work was published in Paris, he
was called the "peace photographer" for the serene nature of his
images and because these were often taken in lands now associated with violence.
This
could well be said of his images in Palestine, in which he captures olive trees,
herds of wandering sheep, and his typical combination of traditional landscape
with flatter, often horizonless views.
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Sewing
near Nebi Musa, Palestine, 1980
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In
contrast to those of Sabella and Powell, Andrew
Courtney’s photographs strike us with the harsh realities of the
occupation. Even in color, Courtney’s work presents a different perspective on
the Palestinian life. In black and white, we see the traumatized Soul suffering
the results of occupation, especially in a photograph of a lady and her boy
looking from a human-sized hole in the wall of their house, evidence of how the
Israeli occupation affects their lives.
Courtney
focuses on the human, not the landscape. Whether it is the child, the
individual, the family, Courtney’s faces reflect the agony of years of
oppression, a sense of desperation and loss. His earlier works represented
people in societies where different histories, dreams, and expectations clash,
and likewise in capturing the Soul, Courtney’s individuals reflect the
Palestinian life in destitution.
Events
sponsored by Al-Phan deal with art works influenced by Palestine and the
experience of Palestinians, but not necessarily by Palestinian artists. The
Palestinian artist is more aware of the culture and the surrounding environment,
but the non-Palestinian artist presents a perspective that is fresh and less
attached, says Taha.
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Dina Rashed is islamonline.net correspondent in Chicago,
USA. You can contact her at
ArtEnter@islam-online.net
