Tarek Al Ghoussein Retrospective Exhibition

The Sharjah Art Foundation, in collaboration with the Sharjah Art Museum and the Directorate of Arts, Department of Culture and Information, Government of Sharjah, will be hosting a major retrospective of works by Palestinian-Kuwaiti artist Tarek AlGhoussein, from 13 March to 13 May 2010.

Curated by Jack Persekian, Director of the Sharjah Art Foundation, the exhibition will feature over 60 works created in the period between 2001 and 2010, including the acclaimed 'Self-Portrait' series as well as a new body of work entitled the E series which will be presented for the first time.

The starting point for the 'Self-Portrait' series, which began in 2001, was the artist’s growing frustration with the way Western media often misrepresents Palestinians and Arabs in general and perpetuates the myth that all Palestinians are terrorists. An anonymous, solitary figure wearing a kaffiyah is pictured against purposefully selected backdrops and objects such as ships or aeroplanes. For the first time since the series first went on display during the Sharjah Biennial in 2003, the 'Self Portrait' works will be shown in their original format, placed against light boxes.

As a Palestinian-Kuwaiti who has never set foot in Palestine, the notion of 'identity' is a constant concern in Al Ghoussein’s work. The walls, mounds and barriers that populate his A and B series are, in the first instance, a reference to the 'defence barrier' being constructed in Palestine, but more importantly they speak of the artist’s personal struggles as he tries to negotiate his relationship with the world around him. In the C series we witness both a continuation as well as an extension of these themes. The landscape becomes increasingly ambiguous and variable, thus evoking notions of transience. In his D series, and most recently in the DII series, which respond to various UN resolutions concerned with mapping and displacement, the artist continues his examination of the relationship between subject and space and how the individual affects and is affected by the space he inhabits.

In the artist’s most recent E series, which will go on display for the first time, the lone figure is pictured standing in a roundabout, bringing forth notions of ordering, positioning and movement in relation to the landscape. The roundabout both imposes order and regulates movement, and thus serves to explore the relationship between the individual and systems of order and control.