Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art is pleased to present Suspended Time, the first solo exhibition in Canada by Palestinian artist Taysir Batniji. Curated by Scott McLeod and presented as a primary exhibition of the Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival, this exhibition surveys Batniji’s major works of the past twenty years, with a particular emphasis on photography. Specifically, three of his most significant photographic series from his formative years are presented alongside selected sculptures and works on paper.
As a Palestinian artist who lives and works in France, Taysir Batniji explores in his work the social, cultural and political realities of Palestine, the challenges of migration, and the state of being “in between.” His sculpture Suspended Time (2007), from which this exhibition takes its name, provides an apt representation of the exhibition as a whole. In this work, the conjoined glass orbs of an hourglass sit side by side, with grains of sand resting in the bottom of each. In effect, time stands still, and the most potent symbolism of the hourglass – that of the inexorable passing of time and the inevitability of change – is neutralized. This exhibition invites us to consider the effect on one’s worldview when the natural forces that govern our lives – time, movement, change – are suspended.
Gaza Walls (2001), a work originally created as a slide show and subsequently presented as a digital projection and a wallpaper installation, is shown as a series of colour photographic prints. The work depicts the walls of Gaza City during the first months of the Second Intifada, at which time they became an essential medium of display for portraits of martyrs. The loss of the individual is echoed in the deterioration of the images.
series of 64, inkjet prints on hahnemuhle paper, 40 × 60 cm, each
Watchtowers (2008) is a series of black-and-white photographs that document the watchtowers installed by the Israeli military on the West Bank. Inspired by the formal strategies of German photographers Bernd and Hilla Becher, the work presents a typological survey of these structures. Unlike the Bechers, however, the work eschews technical mastery, as it was, of necessity, shot surreptitiously under perilous conditions.
set of 12 black-and-white photographs, digital prints, 50 × 40 cm, each
GH0809 (2010) documents the remnants of houses and other infrastructure destroyed in bombardments during an Israeli military operation in Gaza in 2008–09. Here, the photographs are displayed in the form of real-estate advertisements, replete with detailed descriptions of the former dwellings. As with Watchtowers, the work plays upon the expectations of the viewers by starkly contrasting a familiar format with arresting content.
20 C-prints on glossy transluscent paper, 29.7 × 21 cm, each
Lastly, To My Brother (2012) is a series for which Batniji hand-carved images onto paper that were based upon photographs from his late brother’s wedding album. At first glance, the paper appears blank, but upon closer scrutiny, the latent image becomes apparent. This series can thus be said to distil the characteristics that most distinctly represent the artist’s entire oeuvre: emptiness, absence, fragility, erasure, loss.
series of 60 handmade engravings after photographs, on Hahnemüle paper, 40.5 × 30.5 cm, each
Image courtesy of Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid