TAREK AL-GHOUSSEIN, ‘Transfigurations’
TRANSFIGURATIONS
Size: 9.91 x 30.48 cm
Pages: 160
Published by Black Dog Publishing Limited, 2014
The first major monograph of Palestinian-Kuwaiti artist Tarek Al-Ghoussein, one of the leading voices for contemporary art in the Gulf, whose work focuses predominantly on the metaphor-laden presence of the lone figure. Born in Kuwait in 1962, Al-Ghoussein's position as a Palestinian-Kuwaiti shapes the dominant themes of identity, displacement and politico-structural control prominent in his work. His work, comprised of photographs that often feature the figure of the artist silhouetted against barren landscapes, serves as a partial allegory for the obstacles and forms of control facing Palestinians and the diaspora, as well as troubling Western representations of Arabs as terrorists. Other series use the desert as a stage for investigating the artist's relationship to land and place, and are done amidst the rapid urban transformation of the United Arab Emirates. In the words of Sabine Vogel, his work "goes beyond the specific", and "transforms direct political references into the existentially universal". Transfigurations: Photographs of Tarek Al-Ghoussein was published in collaboration with the Taymour Grahne Gallery, New York, coinciding with a solo exhibition at the gallery in 2014.