Mist

In this exhibition, Shada Safadi and Akram Al Halabi rediscover their homeland through narratives of memory, myths and everyday practices, stepping back and contemplating the scene in relation to its wider context. The exhibition is an invitation to contemplate the scene and everyday practices in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights and to consider the beauty and contradictions that emerge as a result of the paradoxical dynamics between the familiar and the unfamiliar.

The two artists present a common conceptual composition and multi-layered surfaces creating a visual relationship between images, colours and shapes using simple techniques.

Safadi dusts off childhood memories and deeply rooted beliefs, discussing the symbolism of place in an attempt to restore personal histories using abstraction, collage, cyanotype printing and installation. The artist treats the surfaces of his works using salt; a fog-like effect, as if he were projecting his subjects through the clouds of memory.

Al Halabi relies on photographs of everyday life in his artistic production. He treats these images using colours, lines and Arabic letters. He focuses on symbols and representations, weaving a link between the altered images of abstract reality and the letters he illustrates. It is an attempt to make the scenes speak, creating strong and relevant sounds.