Simone Fattal: Various works (1978–2006)

Overview

Simone Fattal’s practice encompasses sculpture, non-figurative ceramic forms, paintings, collage and works based in textual composition. Her exploration of artistic medium and source material are paralleled in her equally expansive preoccupations with war, its socio-political context, time and ancient history.

Fattal's work The Rain Forever Will be Made of Bullets (2006) is a series consisting of lava stone tiles painted with Arabic inscriptions naming the massacres committed against Palestinians since the Nakba. Also quoting the poem ‘Jebu’, composed by Fattal’s longtime associate and fellow artist Etel Adnan, the work communicates personal and national trauma caused by war, famine, mass disease, genocide, crimes against humanity, dictatorship, political exile and much more.

Two sculptures found in the courtyard, Zhat El Himma and Abdel Wahab (2006), from Fattal’s 'Warrior' series, are based on two mythic heroes of the Sira, from an epic of the same name, widely unknown even in the Arab world. Representative of those who must continually endure war and struggle, these large standing figures are indicative of the artist's larger preoccupation with the socio-political conditions in the Middle East, particularly during the times the artist refers to as 'fundamental upheavals'. It is especially in these moments that Fattal finds the need to preserve and shed light on the ancient past.

Also presented in the exhibition are her paintings, including Mount Sannine (1978) and Afternoon (1978), which depicts the white and pink tonalities during and after sunset.