“INSIDE OUT� Paintings by Mohammed Joha
The title of this exhibition "Inside Out" is a statement of a style that shows the object and its inverse, the fact and its opposite, that is, the home as sanctuary for personal belongings that can no longer be protected and safeguarded from public reach and indiscreet glances. As such, the loss of the home and its subsequent destruction--with all its small details of private life--becomes brutally visible to every and anybody passing by. Since 1948, home demolitions and forced displacements have been practiced against the Palestinian people. These actions are a consequence of the policies of ethnic cleansing and demographic change. These policies have produced a sustained sense of uprootedness, a sense of rupture between the native inhabitants and their place of origin. Meanwhile, the abandoned places lie inanimate and lifeless. In shedding light on this modern-day humanitarian ordeal, I use personal objects in an unusual way to prevent trivialization and misinterpretation. Furthermore, I unfold varied and different arguments by inquiring about the nature of the relationship between people and the place they dwell in. Does a place have either a memory or an emotion? Can we take the place with us if we were forced to leave? For the home is the place we seek to enjoy, to retain our comfort, to preserve our privacy, and to retain our contradictions in an intimate space. A home has compassion for our presence and feels our warm breath. As we melt in its countless worlds--its sense of place--the home becomes an essential part of what makes us human. Thinking about our place is not done through an abstract reference, is not an homage to a silent cement structure made of walls,windows, doors, containing cactus plots, basil plants, cats and toys. Our relationship with the place and with these everyday elements and items is forever engrained in us. It is a vital, vivid relationship of an ongoing nostalgia, friendship and coexistence. -Mohammed Joha 2014
“INSIDE OUT”, #1, acrylic on canvas, 145 x 145 cm, 2014
“INSIDE OUT” #2, acrylic on canvas, 145 x 145 cm, 2014
“INSIDE OUT” Series #3, acrylic on canvas, 145 x 145, 2014
“INSIDE OUT” #4, acrylic and collage on paper, 100 x 70 cm, 2013
“INSIDE OUT” #6, acrylic and collage on paper, 100 x 70 cm, 2013
“INSIDE OUT” #8, acrylic and collage on paper ,100 x 70 cm, 2014
“INSIDE OUT” #12, acrylic and collage on paper, 70 x 100 cm, 2013
“INSIDE OUT” #13 , acrylic on paper, 70 x 100 cm, 2014
“INSIDE OUT” #14, acrylic and collage on paper, 70 x 100 cm, 2014
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“INSIDE OUT” #16 , acrylic on paper, 70 x 100 cm, 2014