Still solo exhibition

Within this Narrow Strip of Land Within contributes to making visible the overwritten histories and redrawn boundaries of Palestine and reflect on the significance of Palestine’s colonial past and present using archival research and the sustained study of the region through moving image, sound and text work. This output is the result of many years of rigorous engagement and research with the region to produce original practice-based work, talks and events. Within this Narrow Strip of Land (2017) is a nine- screen audiovisual installation of a diverse collection of short films which range in style, source and technique drawing on observational film, archival research and the still and the moving image. Assemblage and Reel re-appropriate archival footage from London’s Imperial War Museum that documents the British Mandate period in Palestine (1917-1948) and are recomposed to evoke the deliberate blind spots and all that is hidden in the documentation of history. The installation is configured to create a suspended, refracted and unstable portrait of landscape that has been consistently redrawn and occupied by colonial forces. Avant la Lettre II (2017) is a text piece that reconfigures and re-presents the 1917 Balfour declaration by exposing the re-drafting of this document over subsequent months during 1917 by Balfour. Numbering a mere 67-words this document has defined a region, millions of lives over multiple generations. The phrasing is simple and rational, yet it conceals the profound irrationality of worldwide geopolitical conflict, capitalist accumulation, notions of statehood, religion and identity. The text provides no clue to the 100 year’s of discord and violence it would incite. Alongside the exhibition Still in 2017 which was fully funded by the Al Qattan Foundation, Mosaic room there was a weekly educational and talks program that engaged audiences with issues and stake within the work.