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What started as a simple and fun idea soon materialized into
a collection of interesting photographs and work. It was after
the fact while looking at the images that the group began
to realize that there was more to the project than meets the
eye. Each hand reflected more than a painting but rather a
unique landscape of personality and experience.
"There are certain words, shapes, and colors that triggers
something in your mind." Different elements in the designs
of the hand paintings carried different associations. For
instance, Yazan, the only male in the group to have his hand
painted, had a clearly masculine hand painting, apparent through
the broad shapes and colors used. Others in the group who
may have reflected a messy or disheveled personality also
found their hand paintings to show a sort of random disorder
or chaos. The kind of organization of the hand designs lent
itself to an analysis of personality. "We look at a hand
closely and discover hills, valleys, and paths. We take a
snap shot of that. We internalize it, project our own images
and texts over it. We are part of it and outside it"
After this breakthrough the group discussed expanding the
project. Another dimension started to take form as the work
began to verge on social research. "It became a sort
of scientific experiment." What was need now was funding
to organize the project to run through an extended period
of time. The group approach the Khalid Shoman Foundation at
Darat al Fanun with their proposal for a project entitled
"Terrains." The work included 6 months of gathering
material through sequenced hand painting sessions and would
end in an installation to exhibit the resulting works. After
sitting with director Suha Shoman, the group was happy to
know that their vision was shared and well received. It was,
after all, a big move for the Dara to take a chance on a group
of young Jordanians who, prior to "Terrains," had
limited exposure in the Jordanian art scene. But without hesitation,
a space was set, a check was issued there and then, and the
project took off.
Part One: The Sessions
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"Terrains is about narrative building, dissection and
storytelling. It is also about layers: layers of paint, image,
voice, thought and meaning. It is about the passing of time
and time standing still." Nearly a year after the first
gathering, the first official session was set in July 2003.
The initial assembly of participants were twenty but with
time shortened to thirteen. Those thirteen were then broken
into 3 groups and over three weekends a month sessions would
be held in Alma's residence over a six month period. The atmosphere
was cozy and intimate. Alma's house itself seemed a source
of inspiration, covered with local art adorning an otherwise
pristinely white yet highly modern space. In the center of
the house Ala', Alma and Yazan set up their audio and lighting
equipment. An empty space, surrounded with shallow steps and
capped with a fire place, provided a defined area for the
session to take place. Alma casually occupied this central
spot, seated next to her trunk of paints and colors, face
to face with the participant who's hand would be painted.
The studio environment contrasted with the naturalness of
lived-in home gave a sense of leisure to the work.
Over a cup of damn good coffee and the occasional vegetarian
tid-bit snack, the members of the group would gather together
and commence the happening. Each group would partake in the
hand painting sessions together, and over time a comfort and
familiarity was fostered between the participants. This relaxing
ambiance was essential for sharing experiences and promoting
openness within a group of Jordanians typically raised in
families or a society which encourages a gross lack of self
revealing and expression. Various topics of discussion, from
body hair to past lives, would arise during the hand painting
sessions. The narrative process flowed easily between the
group as moods would lighten and leaden with the stream of
consciousness-like conversations. Debates would arise and
differences of opinions would be revealed through the practice.
By the end, everyone involved grew to know more about themselves
and the others.
Quick to react to the narratives was Alma, intuitively painting
while mediating the stories. Dots and loops covered wide areas
of skin and paint. Stories, coded in Alma's own visual language,
were actively imprinted on the palms of every hand. And all
the while, Yazan would photograph each hand as the paintings
progressed as Ala', always with a bit of amusement, managed
the audio and monitored the recorded conversations throughout.
Part Two: From Vision to Completion
"We worked really hard and continuously, and we really
knew that we wanted this to see it through. This was a major
part in making it happen." At the close of the sessions
Ala', Alma, and Yazan organized themselves once again to sort
out their collected material. Spending months mulling over
the results from their "experiments," the project
once again formed another dimension. The process of self reflection
was revisited. As Yazan pointed out, "When you listen
to conversations recorded, its like seeing yourself in pictures.
You pick up new things about yourself and see things more
objectively." Now, rather than the social interactive
experience of the recording sessions, previous narratives
are broken down to sounds, phrases, and lines. New stories
were taking place.
A design was set for the installation space. "What's
different in this exhibition is that you don't usually see
people visualizing a show before working on it. We were very
pleased to see the end result was very close to what we initially
saw." The work would cover five separate spaces through
the lower artist studios at the Dara. Each room had a separate
design and theme."We wanted to create layers." The
group is quick to give credit to the Dara for their support
and trust. "Through the process they remained supportive,
even when we were stressing out." There was a lot riding
on the shoulders of the group to produce a show on a par with
their efforts. Other artists in the community were also eagerly
hoping to see "Terrains" succeed, as their success
may open the doors for other experimental projects and proposals
in the future.
The Show
"We wanted people to come out and interact with the work
- to be actively involved in the stories themselves."
After the final weeks of the group's superhuman efforts to
complete and effectively translate their initial vision to
one complete space, the project reached its climax on May
20th 2004 during the official "Terrains" opening
at the Darat Al Fanun. The installation, like the professional
fields of the artists, was diverse. "We were very careful
not to limit the work into any one specific medium."
There is no central point in the installation, each part manages
to stand on its own. The audio rips like a zither through
the space. As you walk through the installation your attention
grabs a hold of a few fleeting words like an overheard conversation.
The video piece animates the mechanisms of the hand, deconstructing
the whole of a story to the sum of its parts. The left over
pieces of passed narratives are then combined to suit each
viewer as they walk through the show.
The work utilizes the group's fine art, graphic design and
architecture backgrounds into its industrial structure and
commercial materials. Using unorthodox resources such as enhanced
audio, digital printing and large hanging banners, the work
takes the presentation model of the advertising industry and
rather than market a product, they promote the voice of under
represented young and modern Jordanian youth. The repetition
of hand images, showing the development of finalized hand
paintings, reflect a kind of assembly line of identity and
experience. The word itself and theme of the work, "Terrains,"
refers to the topical changes in the physical environment.
Every hand carries with itself its own path and texture. A
trained palm reader is assumed to be able to tell one's life
tale from the terrains of a hand. In the juxtaposition of
each hand and story throughout the installation, the personal
path is lost to a greater organization of space and time.
The painted patterns within the hand images seem to echo the
changing urban landscape of a city design. Here, the once
individual is now an inescapable part of a whole. The question
remains however, is the landscape reflecting the individual,
or is the individual shaping the landscape?
What makes the project successful is the dedication and resilience
of the three artists throughout the entire course of the undertaking.
What makes the show successful is that the work defies the
expectations of a typical art piece. It takes an age-old tradition
like hand painting, modernizing, decontexualizing, and fitting
it to represent our generation. By combining audio, video,
and photography, into the overall design of the installation,
the narratives which were once so personal, have been transformed
and broadened into a universal language of self expression.
To
the exhibition
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