Weed Control
Exhibition on Palestinian flora and colonialism. 1 September - 1 December 2020, A.M. Qattan Foundation, Ramallah, with the participation of 33 artists. Curator: Yazid Anani
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Daucus Aureus. 2020
Model: 150/120 cm
Video: 356 seconds
The idea of the work is the “Sisyphusianism” and futilitarianism linked to neverending attempts to remove the seed from hair and clothes. These futile attempts transform the entity of the microseed into something larger, preoccupying the person and transforming it into a central source of torment and suffering. Hence, the seed is enlarged 1,000 times its normal size so that the typically miniscule seed transforms into a supernatural object.
The process of enlarging the seed makes it seem like an interstellar creature, or perhaps from the sea, or a unique organism resmbling microscopic viruses that haunt the world during an epidemic. This leads us to contemplate Freudian psychoanalytical philosophy and its attempts to interpret dreams, or to Marxist dialectical materialism, which considers thought as an outcome of matter rather than the other way around.
The ability of tiny things—such as the seed—to grow, adapt, survive, dominate and control, grants it enormous and intriguing power. Hence, the decision to transform the tiny seed into this monstrous size is a visual attempt to deduct the philosophy that underlies its nonmaterial characteristics and embody it in a new physical form. It explores the ability of matter to transform into a philosophical subject, nurturing the human instinct for knowledge and finding additional dimensions that were once meaningless. The physical being and the material existence impose on the viewer an intellectual analysis linked to unique psychological, philosophical and cultural dimensions.
© Photo, text: Artist & A. M. Qattan Foundation
Exhibition on Palestinian flora and colonialism. 1 September - 1 December 2020, A.M. Qattan Foundation, Ramallah, with the participation of 33 artists. Curator: Yazid Anani