Curator's note:
The artist's title for this image is The Oud Player
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Artist Statement
The circumstances that I live in, and which have been turned into typical modern works of art, are inspirational as its subjects are plentiful. Painting, video, photography, construction of comprehension and techniques of modern art are used in the manner I want to address and present to spectators. My interest in modern art comes from my belief that technology has a very great and influential role in creative output, in particular in the field of visual arts, which have changed and widened in its presentation to the public. This is why I always try to link my life with the life of the people. My subjects appear as allusions to the circumstances I live in, or particular incidents in which the people of Gaza are living daily given their daily fluctuating political, economic and social conditions. These changes are reflected in my artworks. I am always searching for new possibilities, dialogue and new techniques with which to build my thoughts, which emerge from an often bitter reality. It is my wish to transform those circumstances into critical and sometimes sarcastic interventions. I hereby intend critical sarcasm as a tool to draw people closer to the realities as such allowing my spectators a vantage point from which to relate and deal with important human concerns.
At the beginning of my artistic career, I was among artists who tried to detach arts from politics. This was due to the belief that art was a private matter and a secret relationship between an artist and his works.
That all changed five years ago due to the conditions we live in in Palestine, especially in Gaza in the wake of the Israeli attack in 2008-2009. My inner feelings affected, my art work repulsed that ugly attack. Ironically, this took place in exile, in Paris in 2009. I produced 43 drawings of a soldier in various situations. They were done with ridicule. In those works there was comedy of a different type, namely black comedy that is seen in many of my current works. This method of ridicule was lately clear in my artistic project titled "Limits of Patience" through which I flout on the difficult situations we face in Gaza in terms of besiegement and closure of crossings and boundaries. At exhibitions, viewers were greeted with a comic affectation, but soon became an access into the depths of the work to find agonies and the hardships expressed by such works.
Sometimes I paint works that are not inked to the Palestinian policy, being abstract works, taking up the animal as a basic element for such paintings, which I try to color nicely because I am a life loving human.
MOHAMMED AL HAWAJRI
Source:
http://eltiqa.com/en-artists-10