Ahmada Turaani Shop In The Center Of Samakh Before Occupation

Posted by Nayef Mustafa in Palestine Remembered web site 

http://www.palestineremembered.com/Tiberias/Samakh/Picture3108.html

These paintings here have been created out of my maternal subjectivity sensibility. In other words, the experiences of pregnancy, birth and raising my children have affected my perception of life and my relationships with time, space, humans, non-humans and material. 

The decision to work for a long period of time with the photograph of Samakh emerged from these life-changing maternal experiences.

This photograph (above) is with me since I read Yahya Yakhlif’s book, entitled: 'A Lake Beyond The Wind' in 2007. Samakh, a Palestinian town that was destroyed in April 1948 on the same day of my birthday thirteen years before I was born, 10 minutes drive from the place I was born. Yet, the first time I heard about it was when I read this book. Samakh is with me in the every-day and especially manifests through my artworks. My artworks are with me in the every-day, part of who I am. My sons, Gilad and Mayron, are with me in the every-day, if not physically than still in a metaphysical and sub-atomic levels. Here I refer to the interview with the quantum physicist-feminist Karen Barad.

כל הציורים הנ"ל נעשו ועדין נעשים מתוך ההבנה הסובייקטיבית-מטרנלית שלי. במילים אחרות, חוויות הריון, לידה וגידול ילדים השפיעו ואף שינו את יחסיי לזמן, חלל, אנשים, לא-אנשים, וחומר. ההחלטה להתמקד בצילום סמח' (למעלה) אף היא נובעת מהשינוי בתפיסתי את החיים. אני נמצאת עם סמח' מאז שקראתי את סיפרו של יחייא יחליף, 'אגם מעבר לרוח' בשנת 2007. סמח', עיירה פלשתינית שנהרסה באפריל 1948 באותו תאריך בו נולדתי 13 שנים לפני -כן, 10 דקות נסיעה ממקום הולדתי, אך שמעתי אודותיה לראשונה רק כאשר קראתי את הספר. סמח' נמצאת איתי ביום-יום ובמיוחד באה לביטוי דרך יצירתי. יצירתי נמצאת איתי יום-יום, חלק ממי שאני. בניי, גילעד ומירון, נמצאים איתי ביום-יום, אם לא בדרך פיסית עדין בדרך מטאפיסית או/וברמה התת-אטומית. כאן אני במיוחד מתייחסת לדבריה של הפיזיקאית-פמיניסטית קרן ברד:

Matter, according to Karen Barad is:

‘Eros, desire, life forces [that] run through everything, not only specific body parts or specific kind of engagements among body parts. Matter itself is not a substrate or a medium for the flow of desire. Materiality is already a desiring dynamism, a reiterative reconfiguring, energized and energizing, enlivened and enlivening.’

From: ‘”Matter feels, converses, suffers, desires, yearns and remembers” Interview with Karen Barad’, (from “Meeting Utrecht Halfway” intra-active event, June 6, 2009, at the 7^th European Feminist Research Conference, Utrecht University).

The photograph of Samakh acts as a magnetic light point. I return to it again and again, each time a new bud-idea appears, which I didn’t see before. I return to it out of closeness, it is never far, always in the periphery of my vision.

My vision has expanded as a direct consequence of my maternal subjectivity. This is a vision which combines the visible and the invisible. Like the state of being pregnant in which I see all around me, including my changing body. I see through ultra-sound a graphic representation of my foetus. I learn to see my child-foetus through body vision: sensations yet without a name. I learn to see through bodily discharge (an insulting word). I learn that vision itself has an ‘outside’ and an ‘inside’. An outside vision of everything which is outside of my body; and an inside vision of what grows inside my body, which is part of me.

I am an organic-cultural-social-historical being and what grows inside me is part of this being that I am. This vision which combines outside and inside is being implemented in my paintings. It is a vision that expands beyond a pair of eyes planted in a physical body; a gaze that is returned and projected from other humans and non-humans around me in a sphere of changing dimensions of time and space. 

   

תצלום סמח' משמש כנקודת אור ממגנטת. אני חוזרת אליה שוב ושוב, כל פעם 'נובט' מתוכה ניצן-רעיון, דבר חדש שלא ראיתי קודם. אני חוזרת אליה מתוך קירבה, היא אף פעם לא רחוקה, תמיד בפריפריה של מבטי. מבטי מתרחב וקשור ישירות לסובייקטיביות המטרנלית. מבט שמכיל את הנראה ואת שאינו נראה. כמו מצב הריוני שבו אני רואה מה שנמצא סביבי כולל את גופי המשתנה. אני רואה דרך האולטרא-סאונד סכמה של עובר. אני לומדת לראות את ילדי-עוברי דרך ראיית גוף: תחושות שעדין אין להן שם. דרך ביטויים גופניים-חומריים, 'הפרשות' (מילה מעליבה). אני לומדת שלראייה עצמה יש 'חוץ' ו'פנים'. ראייה חיצונית של מה שנמצא מחוץ לגופי וראייה פנימית של מה שצומח בתוכי, חלק ממני. אני יישות אורגנית-תרבותית-חברתית-היסטורית ומה שצומח בתוכי הוא חלק מיישות זאת. את הראייה הזאת, המחברת יחד 'חוץ' ו'פנים', אני מיישמת בציוריי. עם מבט שמתרחב מעבר לזוג עיניים ששתולות בגוף הפיסי; מבט שמוחזר ומושלך מאחרים סביבי, האנושי והלא-אנושי (חפצים, חומרים), במרחב שבנוי ממיימדים משתנים של זמן וחלל. 

The drawings were placed on top of each-other. This negates the possibility to view each one individually, since they stick together in the process of drying.

Wet Drawings is informed by my experiences as a mother-artist. The materials for the drawings, graphite powder and plastic glue form a mixture that

conveys the sensation when being absorbed by actions that are difficult, if not impossible, to define. These actions include pregnancy, giving birth and raising children. This method of drawing stands in contrast to drawings done with a sharp pencil. It refuses clear boundaries. Instead, the drawing material drips, crosses lines, covers surfaces in the way liquid does.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inJzn0-PjA0&feature=bf_next&list=HL1347745009
This clip shows preparations for Wet Drawings, a performative drawing that took art in Flint minifest, Salisbury Art Center 2012.
  -  הקישור לווידאו קליפ הנ"ל מראה הכנה לעבודה 'רישומים רטובים' שנעשתה ב'מיניפסט
פלינט' 2012
סולסבורי, אנגליה

YNG, Wet Drawings, Flind minifest 2012

ינג, 'רישומים רטובים', רישום מייצגי

Maternal element – the unmothered

As with all artworks, A Way to Remember is informed by one’s own experiences. Spreading the mixture on the paper opened up an imaginary space where a domestic action of floor cleaning has been echoed, of a woman standing on four, rubbing her hands over a flat surface, as if cleaning or whipping some dirt. This was reinforced by the colour of the mixture which resembles dirt.

Regarding women who were not mothered psychoanalyst Clarisa Pinkola Estes writes: ‘[...] if she is unmothered, her instincts have not been sharpened.’[1] A person who’s basic instinct has been injured ‘instead of aiming toward new life, [...] sits down in a psychic pool of glue. Lack of fleeing when it is absolutely warranted causes depression.’[2] This was written as part of the research, where maternal trauma was explored and analysed. Indeed, this new work, although addressing a Palestinian town which got destroyed in 1948, was done through the artist’s own personal biography.

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[1] Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Women Who Run With The Wolves, London: Rider,1998, p. 186

[2] Ibid, p. 231

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A Way to Remember, Drawing, was a pavement art commission which took place as part of MK Festival Fringe 2012[1]. In respond to the brief the following proposal had been put forward.

I would like to draw the Palestinian town 'Samakh' which got destroyed in 1948 with the 'birth' of Israel as my ‘Objet Trouve’ (Found Object). As an Israeli artist (based in Winchester, UK) I am interested in Palestinian towns and villages that existed until 1948.  History lessons at school excluded this information, so now, as an adult, as a mother-artist I am re-educating myself and some others too. I lived in MK for six years, and both my sons were born there.  

With regard to Oskar Schlemmer's quote, I refer to the definition of 'romantic' as:

'relating to a movement in late 18th- and early 19th-century music, literature, and art that departed from classicism and emphasized sensibility, the free expression of feelings, nature, and interest in other cultures'

From: Encarta Dictionary UK.

Some preparation drawings where made prior to the event, where different materials, techniques and compositions were tested. Finally method, form and composition, as well as materials were chosen. The method involved building a layer of Graphite powder mixed with plastic glue to create the effect of ‘road’ or a ‘car park’, on top of which a ‘drawing’ was made, using white chalk. (I put the word ‘drawing’ in bracket because the whole drawing includes the layers and the work with chalk).  This allowed the drawing to look like it was drawn on pavement. The ‘house’ was simplified to a 3-D box-like shape formed by creating straight lines and angles, using Masking tape. This was a performative drawing in which preparing the surface was part of the work and done as a ritual. It included covering the paper with a layer of white emulsion, waiting for it to dry, then start to mix the Graphite powder with plastic glue, using special bowls and a mixing stick. When the mixture was ready, it was spread over the paper by fingers.

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[1] ‘Objet Trove’ MKFestival Fringe (Milton Keynes)

Kristeva writes: ‘Abjection preserves what existed in the archaism of pre-objectal relationship, in the immemorial violence with which the body becomes separated from another body in order to be [...].’[1]

Abjection, therefore, can be understood as a psychical container of memory. Such a container requires constant attention, movement, and dialogue with other containers. As such, it is utilised as a base on which my practice is formed.

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[1] J. Kristeva, Power of Horrors: An Essay in Abjection, Columbia University Press New York, 1982, pp. 9-10.