Sunday 1 March 2009

Nakba: The Return of the Soul




This is Jane Frere's Installation, Nakba.

The project was devised as a means of exploring the historic events of 1948 when 750,000 Palestinians were driven into exile to become the longest suffering refugee population, whose numbers have grown to 4.5 million. The installation, Return of the Soul, was conceived as a means to extend the artist’s work to involve Palestinians themselves in the process of creating the components of a sculpture and multi-media artwork that addresses displacement, and offers an expression of their collective sense of injustice and loss, as well as asserting their right to a national heritage.

Suspended wax figures
Over seven thousand wire, paper, wax figures are suspended in the air on a raked angle across the space. Spectators are able to walk around the installation and at a certain point to pass underneath.

Hanging testimonies
Three-meter long scrolls of paper bearing the imprint of personal testimonies relating to the moment of exile are suspended vertically between handing Perspex strips, creating a “forest” of words. The testimonies are installed in a separate space complementing the figures and bear witness to the identities representing those forced to flee from their homeland in 1948.

Sound Installation
Fragmented layered voices, edited from a series of filmed interviews conducted by the artist, are played in the space surrounding the hanging testimonies.

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