fazal sheikh brings traces of arab–israeli conflict to new york's storefront

fazal sheikh brings traces of arab–israeli conflict to new york’s storefront
all images by cameron baylock / courtesy of storefront for art and architecture

fazal sheikh: memory trace
storefront for art and architecture, new york
now through june 18th, 2016

from now until june 2016, artist fazal sheikh brings traces of the arab–israeli conflict to storefront for art and architecture‘s gallery space in new york city. the exhibition ‘memory trace’ includes more than 25 photographs of villages evacuated and mostly destroyed during the 1948 and 1967 wars, alongside poignant portraits of displaced arab-israelis and palestinians forced into refugee camps. accompanying the images, a monumental tableau depicting the israeli separation wall is displayed on both the exterior and interior of the building — a segment of one of the most symbolic elements of the ongoing conflict. the image, as viewed from both sides of the wall, contains a series of historical demarcations that reflect the notion of displacement.

an image of the israeli separation wall is displayed on both the exterior and interior of the building

the landscape photographs are accompanied by information captioned in english, arabic, and hebrew. these details include their latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates; the population and number of houses on the site in 1948; the date when the village was evacuated; the occupying force and israeli operation that evacuated it; a note about what, if anything, replaced the village in the war’s aftermath; a note about what is on the site today; and a statement about whether or not the village has been renamed, is now without a name, or is registered in contemporary maps of israel.

the accompanying portraits include excerpts from the artist’s interviews with the subjects on what they saw as their villages were evacuated, and what they experienced as a result of the war.

the wall segment is one of the most symbolic elements of the conflict

‘taken from 2010 to the present, the photographs demonstrate that the conflict cannot be restricted to any single population or any one side of the conflict,’ exhibition curator eduardo cadava says. ‘they present a past but also a present wound that, produced by the violence, trauma, and ruin that were the signature of the war, can be read in the fact that palestinians, bedouins, and israelis all find themselves today in mourning. in asking us to consider the history that simultaneously divides and binds these populations, sheikh hopes to lay the groundwork for a potentially transformative empathy. what is at stake is the possibility of exposing and countering the various processes of erasure that have sought to eliminate both the violence of this history and the acts of erasure themselves.’

the depiction contains a series of historical demarcations that reflect the notion of displacement

the exhibition is presented as part of ‘erasures’ — a project that explores the legacies of the arab-israeli war of 1948, which resulted in the establishment of the state of israel and in the reconfiguration of territorial borders across the region. the series is currently presented at six institutions around the world simultaneously.

the exhibition ‘memory trace’ includes more than 25 photographs