Doris Arkin, Pietà, Umm el-Fahem Art Gallery, June-September 2021, Parasite Project (Cat.)

  • Pietà, Umm el-Fahem Art Gallery
  • Pietà, Umm el-Fahem Art Gallery
  • Pietà, Umm el-Fahem Art Gallery
  • Pietà, Umm el-Fahem Art Gallery
  • Pietà, Umm el-Fahem Art Gallery
  • Pietà, Umm el-Fahem Art Gallery
  • Numbers, 2019, found object (painted marine iron shackles), iron square pipe, iron plate 10x265x236
  • Meat, 2020, found object (painted iron bar chairs), mohair wool 115x200x45
  • Meat, 2020, found object (painted iron bar chairs), mohair wool 115x200x45
  • Five Avoidable Deadly Sins, 2020, old wooden chairs, old upholstery fabric, steel springs, iron rods Variable dimensions
  • Five Avoidable Deadly Sins, 2020, old wooden chairs, old upholstery fabric, steel springs, iron rods Variable dimensions
  • Five Avoidable Deadly Sins, 2020, old wooden chairs, old upholstery fabric, steel springs, iron rods Variable dimensions
  • Five Avoidable Deadly Sins, 2020, old wooden chairs, old upholstery fabric, steel springs, iron rods Variable dimensions
  • Five Avoidable Deadly Sins, 2020, old wooden chairs, old upholstery fabric, steel springs, iron rods Variable dimensions
  • Five Avoidable Deadly Sins, detail
  • Five Avoidable Deadly Sins, detail
  • Five Avoidable Deadly Sins, detail
  • Five Avoidable Deadly Sins, detail
  • Five Avoidable Deadly Sins, detail
  • Dystopia, 2020, found object (1970s painted iron sheet electrical enclosure doors), painted compact polyurethane, iron rods 97x90x130
  • Dystopia, detail
  • Dystopia, detail
  • Dystopia, 2020, found object (1970s painted iron sheet electrical enclosure doors), painted compact polyurethane, iron rods 97x90x130
  • Dark, detail
  • Dark, detail
  • Pietà, 2015, embroidered monograms, thread, zinc sheets 115x150x40
  • Pietà, detail

Doris Arkin: Pietà

As in a close relay race of memory bearers, from the private and local to the communal and universal, Doris Arkin’s works take their place in the hall, which previously housed those of the great “watchman,” Walid Abu Shakra— the most spiritual, abundant and influential cornerstone of Palestinian art and culture. This symbolic alliance is meaningful to both the hosts and the guest in this gallery. It resonates and is well implied between the works of the two artists.

“Pieta” is a tightly knit, total exhibition through and through. It features a calculated cluster of idiosyncratic works, selected a-priori and specifically for display at the Umm el-Fahem Art Gallery. From the very first step in the heart of the human inferno to the place of abstention and grace of the pietà, visitors to the exhibition are invited on a journey—a journey of contemplation and consciousness in a world shrouded in imaginary darkness, beneath the showy and misleading surface of our time.

Interspersed along the world’s stations of misery represented here are “trial chairs”—”mantras” of sorts or guard posts, in which the viewer can sit and reflect on each of the world’s most unthinkable crimes. At the same time, in the journey to expose the inferno of collective memory, Arkin implores the viewer to remember the Book of Deuteronomy (30:11–14): “It is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, […] Neither is it beyond the sea, […] But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.”

 

Albert Suisa

On Doris Arkin׳s Exhibition

 

Photos: Meidad Suchowolski

The exhibition and catalogue were conceived as part of the art platform Parasite Diana Dallal

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