Farouk Kaspaules: Be/Longing
23 November 2007 to 3 February 2008
Curated by Emily Falvey

Farouk Kaspaules, No School, 2007, mixed media on paper.

Farouk Kaspaules, Ziggurat (detail), 2006, mixed media on paper.

Farouk Kaspaules, The Return (detail), 2007, mixed media on paper.

Farouk Kaspaules began making art in the mid-1980s as a way to reconcile his daily life in Canada with the political, environmental and cultural instability of his home country, Iraq. His visual experiments in mixed media focus upon concepts of displacement and exile, and employ a complex vocabulary of images, symbols and aesthetic forms derived from ancient and contemporary Iraq, as well as from his mixed cultural background (Christian, Chaldean, and Arab). By appropriating, deconstructing and reinventing found images and symbols from Iraq's multifaceted cultural history, Kaspaules strives "to relate daily events to broader geopolitical and social questions." This reflects his belief that art and politics are activities "that cannot be separated from lived experience."

Embedded within the abstract and symbolic layers of Be/Longing are obvious references to Iraq's recent upheavals: a Stealth Bomber implies the Gulf War and Coalition Occupation; boats (known as mashoofs) evoke the persecution, displacement and gradual return of the Marsh Arabs in Southern Iraq; ziggurats and other artefacts suggest the ongoing looting and destruction of the region's rich cultural heritage. In many ways, the exhibition may thus be viewed as a meditation on loss, both personal and cultural. However, as a collection of found, reworked archival images and historical symbols, it also represents an active form of reclamation. Remaining intimately linked to his birth country through his past and his art, Kaspaules preserves his memories through his images while also acknowledging their painfully ephemeral nature (geopolitically speaking, Iraq as he remembers it no longer exists). Be/Longing thus evokes the many paradoxes of exile. "I have a memory of the place, and I want to keep it because it's the only thing that's almost concrete that I have with me."

– Emily Falvey, Curator of Contemporary Art

Events

Opening
Thursday 22 November at 5:30 pm

Talk with artist Farouk Kaspaules
Friday 23 November at 12:30 pm

Farouk Kaspaules would like to acknowledge the support of the City of Ottawa.

Podcast

Talk with artist Farouk Kaspaules

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