“These are portraits of a geography that capture fraught relationships, collective longing, and multiple attempts at reconciliation with lands left behind, but held firmly within.”

Exhibition: “Lands Within: Re-Orienting Representations of Southwest Asia and North Africa,” group exhibition (featuring artists Anahita Norouzi, Lynn Kodeih, Tamara Abdul Hadi, Marc Kandalaft, Samy Benammar, Zied Ben Romdhane, Fatine-Violette Sabiri, Nabil Azab, Oumayma Ben Tanfous, Marzieh Miri, Rana Nazzal Hamadeh, Ammar Bowaihl), Art Canada Institute, online, November 2023 (withdrawn).

Keywords: exhibitions, curatorial practice, art, contemporary, Orient, Orientalism, problematic, perceptions, representations, misconstrued, reductive, mischaracterization, stereotypes, phantasmagoric, photography, lens-based, images, media, medium, critical, criticality, personal, bonds, affinities, kinship, relationships, belonging, identity, memory, plural, diverse, multicultural, communities, land, terrains, landscapes, geography, topography, ecology, environment, sadness, melancholy, melancholia, grief, mourning, longing, loss, displacement, exile, migrations, refugees, war, turmoil, conflict, instability, unrest, tragedy, colonial, colonialism, interventions, occupation, foreign, meddling, extraction, resources, history, past, present, censorship, silencing, suppression, Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Southwest Asia (”Middle East”), North Africa, Arab, Arabic speaking, world, region, Art Canada Institue, ACI, Massey College, University of TorontoToronto, Ontario, Canada

Image: Tamara Abdul Hadi