Observational Desire on a Memory That Remains
The work attempts to create an imaginary archive of a group show that took place at Al-Hakawati theater hall in Jerusalem in 1985. In the absence of an institutionalized archive of Palestinian art, the video—like many other works by Abuarafeh—is based on immaterial references and oral storytelling such as witness interviews, workshops, and other shared activities in order to construct a narrative. Abuarafeh analyzes a photograph as well as the people who appear in it, all of them artists, trying to identify as many of them as possible. For this, she utilizes digital methods of cutting or separating foreground (people) and background (interior). Through focusing on the biography of one of the portrayed artists, the unwritten history of Palestinian art during this period is being traced and recounted.