This is the first UK exhibition of recent drawings by this renowned activist artist John Halaka. Landscapes of Desire is inspired by the ruins of Palestinian homes and villages destroyed during and after the 1948 exodus. Depicting the ruins of stone homes from devastated Palestinian villages such as Kufr Bir’im, Lifta, Al-Bassa, A’mka and Kweikat, these images are drawn with ink and rubber stamped words.  The repeated stamping of the words “remember,” “resist,” “return,” “rebuild” and  “forgive”, defines the forms, textures and tones of the landscapes, becoming a visual mantra.

This body of work declares that the persistence of memory is a crucial act of political resistance and survival. Halaka comments: “I view forgiveness as one of the most challenging, yet the most critical final stage of a successful non-violent resistance campaign waged by the Palestinians against their occupiers… History teaches all who have suffered or continue to suffer under the tyranny of an oppressor, that without cultivating an emotional state of forgiveness the victims risk becoming the monster they wish to destroy.”

Halaka’s recent work in both painting and documentary film making investigates cycles of repression and displacement as well as the personal and political relationship between desire, denial and instability. His images raise questions, for himself as well as for the viewer, about some of the pressing issues of our time.

John Halaka is of Palestinian descent and was born in El Mansoura, Egypt, in 1957.  ?He is a Professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of San Diego, where he has taught since 1991. He received his MFA in the Visual Arts from the University of Houston in 1983. He has exhibited his work in solo and group exhibitions. His work was included in the exhibit Made In Palestine, organized by the Station Museum, in Houston Texas, as well as IN-VISIBLE, the inaugural exhibition at the Arab American National Museum in Detroit, Michigan.

Exhibition brochure

He shall be giving an artist talk on Saturday 7th May at 12pm. See Talks & Events for further details!