Visual Voices with JORDAN NASSAR Virtual Event (ZOOM)

Jordan Nassar is a Palestinian-American artist who was born and raised in New York City. Extending from this, his work evokes a very particular kind of imagined space: the sort of utopian vision of Palestine held by the displaced constituents that comprise the region’s diaspora.

His favored subject is landscape. He embroiders his compositions, which are framed by, and built up through, repeating patterns adapted from traditional Palestinian motifs. At first glance his scenes seem innocuous enough. They comprise rolling hills, rendered sometimes in vibrant shades of red, while other times in more muted grays and browns. These hills are framed by a dramatically hued sky: oftentimes blue, as we might expect, while in other works it is pink or orange. In these the effect is of distant peaks dappled by the rays of a setting late summer sun. This idyll, which initially seems like an abstract anywhere, turns out to be imaginary, yet specific.

It is fitting that a hero of Nassar’s is fellow Middle Eastern diaspora artist, the Lebanese painter and poet Etel Adnan, who also favors landscape as the subject of her work. Since much of the conflict in the region centers on land rights, especially as they relate to histories of colonialism, it makes sense that topography would feature prominently in the work of artists with a connection to this region. However, the work of Adnan and Nassar is not nostalgic, or even confrontational. Precisely by selecting imaginary landscapes, they evoke the impossibility of ever reclaiming this ideal space while retaining the importance of having some sort of imaginary image in order to direct and concentrate affective energy. Hopefully towards more realistic, incremental political ends.

https://www.jordannassar.com/

This event will be held online only via Zoom. RSVP is required to receive the Zoom link via email the day-of!