WALID RAAD, Sweet Talks
WALID RAAD
Sweet Talks
November, 5th - February, 19th
hamburg
Letters to the Reader
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Foreword to the Arabic edition, 2019
While visiting the recently opened museum of modern Arab art in Beirut, I noticed with great surprise that most paintings on display had no shadows.
At first I was beside myself, convinced that religious zealots had destroyed the shadows. But no umbraclast came forward.
I then pondered whether the museum's walls had been painted with a white so white that shadow is cast on them.
But I suppose I should have known all along that the shadows were not destroyed nor invisible: they had simply lost interest in the walls where they were made to hang.
I decided to build new walls on which I carved shadow-like forms—magnets of sorts—in the hope they’d attract the restless shadows.
Thus far, not a single catch.
Appendix_137
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Appendix 137, 2018
Several Lebanese artists volunteered their services during the war years and created camouflage military fatigues for the fighting militias. Their designs were catalogued in this book by Farid Sarroukh, a mediocre immodest painter who was irked at not having been asked to submit his own designs.