Emily Jacir at Debs & Co - New York … a photographic exhibit documents Palestinian life under occupation

Putting a human face on the Palestinian side of the Middle East conflict, Emily Jacir presents the results of a remarkable yearlong project titled "Where We Come From." Jacir, an artist of Palestinian ancestry, took advantage of her American passport to move freely through Israel and the West Bank, fulfilling simple requests from Palestinians with no such mobility.

Some appeals were seemingly mundane: "Walk the streets of Nazareth," one petitioner asked. "Do something normal in Haifa," entreated another. Other requests highlighted the absurdity of life under occupation: a man living in a restricted area asked her to pay his phone bill at an Israeli post office from which he was barred; another asked her to go on a date with a Palestinian girl he had never met face-to-face. Other requests had explicit political overtones, as when Jacir was asked to light candles for "those who gave their lives for Palestine" or sign a condolence book for a Palestinian hero.

Jacir carried out their requests to the best of her abilities and brought back documentation. For this show, she paired textual accounts of her efforts to fulfill the requests with simple photographs of meals eaten, people visited, flowers laid on graves or trees watered. In each case, Jacir also notes why individuals were unable to undertake these actions themselves.

The Israeli occupation thus becomes a matter of the inaccessibility of favorite foods and childhood haunts, of separated families, of graves not visited and insurmountable obstacles placed before ordinary activities. Jacir's petitioners' backgrounds vary--widely, suggesting the worldwide impact of the occupation. Some live in restricted areas in the West Bank, some in adjoining Arab countries, some in the United States. Their relationships to Palestine also vary--some grew up there, while others speak longingly of a homeland they have not seen, and may never be able to visit.

The exhibition was rounded out by a 130-minute video shot with a camera hidden inside Jacir's purse. She used it to record her daily walk through West Bank checkpoints. As with the photos, this apparently mundane record of everyday life reveals underlying conditions--in the form of the tanks, soldiers and abandoned buildings that Jacir encountered along her route. Although this show made its political sympathies clear, it also issued a larger warning about the human costs of the restricted movement and generalized suspicion that increasingly characterize the security state.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Brant Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group