Khalil Rabah's art challenges norms and artistic
conventions of his Palestinian predecessors, and certainly his colleagues.
His work falls in the center of the contemporary world art scene, but is
at the same time "a relentless, and to a certain extent, endless investigation
of his own cultural identity." Being part of a nation immersed in a long
struggle for self- determination, his works
seem in odd contrast, and sometimes perhaps, in conflict with his surroundings.
Ironically though, this contrast is what brings his work closer to home
than many people believe. " In his work, Rabah oscillates between self-discovery
and the treatment of the fissure and disparity between realities of the
situation in Palestine and the life he aspires for. He tries to envelop
and conceal the acuteness of his wounds, sometimes with painstaking meticulousness
and sensitivity, and other times with singular mercilessness and violence.
Obscuring the surface of the objects he works with or even obliterating
them (using plaster - Band Aid - and nails) alludes to the internal instability
of a person permanently seeking to define his identity and a place to settle
in."*
seem in odd contrast, and sometimes perhaps, in conflict with his surroundings.
Ironically though, this contrast is what brings his work closer to home
than many people believe. " In his work, Rabah oscillates between self-discovery
and the treatment of the fissure and disparity between realities of the
situation in Palestine and the life he aspires for. He tries to envelop
and conceal the acuteness of his wounds, sometimes with painstaking meticulousness
and sensitivity, and other times with singular mercilessness and violence.
Obscuring the surface of the objects he works with or even obliterating
them (using plaster - Band Aid - and nails) alludes to the internal instability
of a person permanently seeking to define his identity and a place to settle
in."*Rabah's work eludes the semiotics of contemporary
art discourse for exactly the same reason that it eludes the Palestinian
and Arab discourse. His Palestinian origin, which he is constantly questioning
yet returning to makes it difficult for contemporary art critics to see,
for example, Rabah's peeled face covered with medical plaster as merely
a reference to "plastic surgery, virtual physiognomies, the dictatorship
of images of youth and beauty, or the symbols of social status that are
integral to recent discourse on peels, skins, covers, and representations",**
because in the Palestinian context they are also a reference to
the wounded, precarious state of the Palestinian people. Similarly, his
ironic and sometimes starkly cruel use of objects generally romanticized
in the Palestinian mind makes it difficult to understand the concept behind
Rabah's ingenious molding of memory, persons, fabrics, old artifacts, and
simply things, things of life.
Originally an architect, Rabah gave a very
special character to two of the most interesting restaurants/coffee shops
in his hometown, Ramallah, namely Kanbata Zaman and K5M.
* Jack Persekian
** Sarit Shapira
Rabah's work will be exhibited at the Khalil
Sakakini Cultural Center, (02) 2987375 opening on July 17th at 18:00 until
July 31st.