SAN FRANCISCO — It has been almost a 12 months and a half for the reason that starting of the Israeli bombardment of Palestine, which many organizations together with Amnesty Worldwide and Human Rights Watch are calling a genocide. Whereas the oppression of the Palestinian individuals lengthy predates these assaults, so, too, does the flourishing of humanity regardless of adversarial circumstances. From the River to the Bay at SOMArts Cultural Middle in San Francisco makes a case for artwork as a celebratory type of resistance.
The exhibition, curated by Chris Gazaleh and up by means of March 30, options the work of 11 Palestinian and pro-Palestinian artists together with Gazaleh, Ren Allathkani, Asma Ghanem, Hussam, Lucia Ippolito, Tarik Kazaleh, Eli Lippert, Diana Musa, SPIE ONE, Maria Fernanda Vizcaino, and the general public artwork collective Break the Silence Mural Mission, who work throughout mediums together with portray, images, set up, and video.
“The artists I included are friends and comrades,” Gazaleh instructed Hyperallergic of his curatorial debut. “Not everyone is necessarily an activist, but they’re all involved in their communities and cultural representation. I think cultural representation, with the right intent and education, is just as important as political education.”
Set up view of From the River to the Bay with works by SPIE ONE and Hussam (photograph Max Blue/Hyperallergic)
At a time when Bay Space arts organizations have actively silenced pro-Palestinian artists or remained silent on the difficulty of Palestine themselves, this type of exhibition could possibly be seen as radical or daring. In response to SOMArts’s Government Director Maria Jenson, nevertheless, the present comes again to the group’s founding rules.
“A cultural center is different from a museum or larger arts organization,” Jenson mentioned. “There’s a mandate to serve the broader community. We continue to mount exhibitions that humanize communities that have historically been othered. We can’t go in a direction that feels watered down or safe.”
Opening reception of the exhibition (photograph by Claire S Burke, courtesy SOMArts)
SOMArts’s historical past of platforming Palestinian artists and allies of the motion is proof optimistic. In 2005, the cultural heart hosted the touring exhibition Made in Palestine, the primary exhibition of all-Palestinian up to date art work in the USA, organized by the Station Museum in Houston. Within the final 12 months alone, SOMArts mounted the exhibitions In Solidarity: Queer and Trans Artists for a Free Palestine and Bearing Witness: An Expression of Love, Solidarity, and Justice for the Folks of Palestine, the 2024 title of its annual Día de los Muertos exhibition.
“Most of the people that work here are part of the communities we support,” mentioned SOMArts’s Gallery Director Carolina Quintanilla. “It doesn’t feel like we’re going out of our way to support freedom of expression when we’re supporting issues that are so close to us. It doesn’t take effort to support people advocating for their existence.”
Set up view of From the River to the Bay with works by Chris Gazaleh (photograph Max Blue/Hyperallergic)
From the River to the Bay celebrates Palestinian existence and persistence in a various vary of manifestations. On one gallery wall, Gazaleh has painted the strains of a poem by Gazan poet Refaat Alareer, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike final 12 months, within the form and colours of a Palestinian flag. “If I die / you must live / to tell my story,” the textual content reads in Arabic script. Within the heart of the flag are pencil drawings by Gazaleh displaying Palestinian characters in varied settings, from harvesting olives to enjoying music and portray graffiti. It is a small-scale work for Gazaleh, who primarily works as a muralist, giving viewers an opportunity to interact intimately along with his topics.
Break the Silence Mural Mission, “Our Roots are Still Alive” (1990, print created 2005) (photograph Max Blue/Hyperallergic)
The exhibition additionally contains a big {photograph} of a mural within the Mission District, painted by Break the Silence, which depicts a scene of festivities on the shore of a physique of water — the river or the ocean, interchangeably — with the phrases “our roots are still alive / Palestinian people will be free / everyone has a right to a homeland / todos temenos derecho a una patria libre” written on a banner unfurling throughout the decrease left nook. The mural was painted in 1990, shortly after Break the Silence was shaped by 4 Jewish-American girls who visited Palestine throughout the First Intifada.
“Older people would cry and say, ‘Bring our case back to your people,’” mentioned Susan Greene, one in all Break the Silence’s founding members, who was additionally concerned in bringing Made in Palestine to SOMArts. “That was something I took very seriously. In their living memory, before the state of Israel, Jews, Muslims and Christians had lived together there.”
When the Second Intifada started in 2001, defacing of the mural grew to become so common that Break the Silence selected to cowl it with plywood, awaiting a day when it may be safely unveiled. Right this moment, it stays entombed, solely seen by means of documentation just like the piece on view at SOMArts.
Diana Should, “Sanarjiou (we will return)” (2019), video nonetheless (photograph Max Blue/Hyperallergic)
Diana Musa’s video “Sanarjiou (we will return)” (2019), filmed in Palestine, contains footage of youngsters and youngsters skateboarding, an olive harvest, and different pictures of on a regular basis Palestinian life, from the shifting to the brutal. One woman’s story of being caged by Israeli troopers performs over footage of rooster cages and barbed wire fences. The video ends with a scene of a younger Palestinian lady strolling in a subject of flowers, a reminder that magnificence persists despite oppression.
Asma Ghanem’s triptych of quiet, home scenes rendered in acrylic and pastel strike an analogous chord. Canvases depicting tables laden with watermelon and tea flank a central work of a woman on a tricycle titled “Palestinian Childhood” (2024). Beneath the work, Ghanem has put in an array of youngsters’s toys, houseplants, and cinder blocks. Most arresting listed here are the woman’s eyes, holding the viewer’s gaze in an expression of harmless humanity.
SPIE ONE, combined media tent set up (photograph by Claire S Burke, courtesy SOMArts)
Different items faucet into the straight political facet of resistance, from pushback in opposition to Israeli propaganda to current pupil protests throughout the USA. An interactive set up by Tarik Kazaleh invitations guests to stamp Israeli propaganda leaflets with the phrase “bullshit” and throw them in a trash can. One other set up, by SPIE ONE, incorporates a tent lined in pro-Palestinian signage, commemorating the current pupil protest motion and plenty of encampments on faculty campuses.
Tarik Kazaleh’s set up invitations guests to stamp Israeli propaganda leaflets with the phrase “bullshit.” (photograph Max Blue/Hyperallergic)
San Francisco State College was one of many first to divest because of the coed motion. In 2006, the college scrapped a design proposal for a mural of Edward Stated on campus that depicted a Palestinian holding a key to their residence, likening the imagery to a Klansman’s hood. Even with some universities divesting, censorship on faculty campuses — and past — continues.
“The issue is not just free expression,” Greene instructed Hyperallergic. “The issue is humanity. Taking a stand on morality is what’s required. It’s very tragic and disturbing and obscene that people can’t take that stand.”
Gazaleh echoed this sentiment, calling on artists and viewers alike to contemplate their place.
“In times like this, it’s important for artists to really question their own principles, what they stand for and what they’re about,” Gazaleh mentioned. “I’m hoping when this genocide is over — if that’s even possible — they’ll remember if they were silent or outspoken. And when it becomes cool again to care about other people of color who are suffering injustices, they’ve got to remember if they were silent about Palestine.”
