Voice from barren expanses calls for understanding

The notion of national identity and the struggle to hold on to one's heritage have played a vital role in artist Tarek Al Ghoussein's approach to life.

The psychological impact of not being allowed within the borders of Palestine is ubiquitous in the politically charged photographs of his D Series, which deals with how the artist's identity was shaped by inaccessibility and loss.

“It is about a figure taking a journey across the concept of identity,'' Al Ghoussein told Weekend Review.

In many of his photographs, Al Ghoussein is seen dwarfed by vast desert landscapes. He places himself between, next to, behind, under or even in front of makeshift obstructions created out of green tarpaulin.

Within this choreographed exercise he negotiates for the right to exist with and within his sometimes apocalyptic surroundings.

“The work explores and examines the relationship between the subject and space, particularly the relationship between the solitary figure and the temporary boundaries that define a place. It depicts how the individual both affects and is affected by space,'' he says.

Al Ghoussein, originally a Palestinian, was born in Kuwait in 1962. He earned a bachelor's degree in photography from New York University in 1985 and a masters in photography from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque four years later.

Living in exile since his birth and the past ten years in the UAE has heightened his response towards the malleability of territory and identity and his relationship with those constructs.

The D Series is less autobiographical compared with his previous series. One of the works in the series, The Self Portrait, began in the charged moments following 9/11 as a response to the frustration with the Western media and its misrepresentations of Arabs as terrorists.

Al Ghoussein presented images of a solitary figure wearing a kaffiyeh walking in front of objects such as an aeroplane or a ship, or at a waterfront, to see how people react to these scenarios with the misrepresentation in their minds.

Multiple dimensions explored

Subsequently, he produced two other series of photographs, the A Series and the B Series, that refer to the wall in Palestine.

These follow a more poetic, metaphorical and layered approach to his subject, focusing on physical barriers, land, longing and belonging. The C Series explored the desert landscape.

The creative process behind Al Ghoussein's work is more like filmmaking — composing different pictures as footage for a film.

“What inspired me towards the Untitled 8 (a work in the B Series) was a picture that portrayed a wall dropping from the sky. I did this shoot at a construction site in Sharjah, enveloping different poses in one appealing photograph.

"The walls and mounds that appear throughout the images also speak of my struggles irrespective of the conventional notions of national identity.

“In C Series, although I did not set out to investigate the notion of transience, my work has developed from a process of exploring ideas related to land and place,'' he says.

Although the D Series was produced while the Israeli attack on Gaza was under way, Al Ghoussein says it had no major influence on the works.

“It is less amazing to see the media form international perceptions on any issue. For the world things might have turned better, but for the sufferers things remain at their worst.''

Seth Thompson, an assistant professor of design at the American University of Sharjah, writes: “When taken out of the gallery context, Al Ghoussein's work has created a different kind of meaning that shows how prescient it is.''

While participating in the Noorderlicht International Photography Exhibition in the Netherlands, his photograph, Untitled 5 (self portrait) — which depicted a man wearing a black dress with his head wrapped in a kaffiyeh, walking towards a jet — appeared in De Volkskrant newspaper.

When the head of the local TV station VPRO-TV came across the picture, he assumed another hijacking had occurred.

Later, a short documentary on viewers' interpretations of the photograph within the context of the newspaper was produced by the station's executive. In the programme, the responses by Dutch nationals indicated it might be a terrorist's photograph.

Reactions run their course

In Sharjah viewers had mixed reactions. Some felt the image probably represented terrorists while others thought the figure was “protecting his head from the sand'' or “going to clean the aeroplane''.

However, in most cases throughout the discussion in the documentary, the issue of terrorism did come into the conversation.

“It will be naïve to say I am going to change the world,'' Al Ghoussein says.

“But more than that, the idea of initiating a spark for a change or at least discussing it in my work is more effective for me. Indian poet Kabir said: ‘While you can't put leather around the whole world, if you can cover your feet in leather, it is like the whole world covered.'''

Asked whether art can question people's perceptions and conceptions of the Palestinians more than the international media, Al Ghoussein said: “The international media is itself an art.

"Is there a real media, anyway? If you look at the events in Palestine, and its coverage in the Western media, do you find it authentic? The media is nowadays manipulating reality. It is providing a makeover of reality, which is again an art.

“There is no point in competing or standing on a par with the Western media unless we Arabs start using our minds more than our heart. We need to be much more capitulating to have our own powerful influence on our people. We need to think on a long-term basis.''

Al Ghoussein's book, In Absentia, published recently, is designed by Roderick Grant, an assistant professor of design in the School of Architecture and Design at the American University of Sharjah, where Al Ghoussein is an associate professor of photography.

As an artist and teacher, Al Ghoussein's aim is to question our perceptions about the norms.

“I am an artist, not a prophet with a big message; nevertheless, we should rekindle our thought processes to progress.''

Layla Haroon is a freelance writer based in Abu Dhabi.

D Series is on show until March 7 at The Third Line art gallery in Al Quoz.