The Journey
‘As long as
I am in my own self, I can be anyplace’
Mohammed
Joha
We live in a world in which breathless media presentation of
geo-political and human tragedy is simplistic, repetitive and parochially
self-serving. The capacity for
reflection, compassion and knowledge is slowly eroded by a constant and chaotic
stream of distraction, diversion and platitude. In such a context, the act of
putting coloured paint on a surface and hanging it on a wall is more welcome
and more necessary than ever, particularly when that act produces the body of
contemporary work presented here.
‘The Journey’ operates on a number of levels. It is primarily a
creative journey through the work of Mohammed Joha. However, it is also a
journey of human experience in which determination, resilience and joy are
affirmed.
The 10 paintings in this exhibition have been selected from three
consecutive series of works. The first series is the impressionistic and
melancholic ‘Sound Barrier’ which features four paintings, including ‘Freedom’,
from 2009. The direct and gentle gaze emanating from the centre, and the
figurative tension between stillness and the possibility of flight, provide
both atmosphere and context for the whole exhibition.
The second series, ‘IN x OUT’, from 2013/14 was created as a
response to Israel’s long established policy of house demolition. The physical
loss of a building is visible but the impact on the complex relationship with
home and place, and the trauma associated with its absence, is not. Of this
series Mohammed Joha states:
‘IN x OUT shows the object and its reverse, the fact and its opposite, that is, the home as harbour for personal belongings and possessions, protecting and safeguarding these from public reach or indiscreet glances. Then, the loss of the house and its destruction, whereby the entire contents– with all the small, personal details of a private life – are brutally unveiled and made visible to every and anybody passing by.’
The relationship between person and place is
intrinsic to Joha’s creative and philosophical enquiry into the nature of both
global and individual realities and the intersection between them. Thus the next stage of Joha’s creative
journey has been hugely affected by his immersion and experience in the diverse
transnational communities of Europe. First as an asylum seeker in Norway and
more recently in Italy, where towns like Lampedusa are overwhelmed with the
catastrophic human consequences of political ineptitude elsewhere.
What has emerged is a third series of
‘Identity Paintings’ in which the juxtaposition of vibrant and kinetic colour
and form becomes a way of telling a complex geo-political and emotional story. Boats are the primary motif of these
paintings but in Joha’s view the boats contain individuals bringing different
colours, cultures and experiences with them.
Each boat is a temporary home and each is the land beneath the feet of
the traveller for as long as this stage of the journey lasts.
When Joha inverts the boats like hats they can be belongings carried on the head in transit or tombstones in the graveyard of the Mediterranean Sea. Crucially, however, each boat represents the dreams and the hopes of those who they carry. For those undertaking the journey they are boats of life even if they lead to death.
‘Thousands
of immigrants have drowned on their way to Europe in the hope of reaching safer
shores. In their original countries they are facing death so they are pushed
forward by the same target. To realise their biggest dream of a better life,
where they can sing with joy for being saved.’
Assaulted by the daily media voyeurism of human tragedy, it is
easy to get lost in a pallete that mimics the dark realities of the present.
Mohammed Joha’s insistence that the full spectrum of life must, and will,
prevail is an essential provision for the future. The point is quite simple. It
is to present hope and to honour the dreams of all those who undertake journeys
that never reach their destinations as well as those who do. It is also a
compassionate reminder that anyone who has made such a journey knows that the
journey of others will always be a part of their own.
GALLERY
