The project displays a relationship between the artist Raa'fat Zreik and a psychologically, physically and mentally challenged group, where the artist took photos of the group members wearing brand fashion outfits for women, men and youth. This work exhibits the contradiction between the inner beauty in group members and the person utilized through the photography; between the beautiful outfits and the different moods group members experience. In addition to all that, it was not an easy development process, taking into account the necessity for experts in light engineering, fashion as well as hair and makeup experts. The parents were also recruited into this project, since the group members have different special needs, a task organizationally challenging by itself.
The artist legitimizes this minority, and deals with them in languages that offers them a stage to express themselves and be partners in making decisions, formative as well as cultural. The artist uses the formation and photography language in particular to encourage and motivate the group members offering them mental support and peace of mind; at the same time, through this project, the artist explores the group members' thoughts and needs, and their aspirations to bridging the gaps between strong and weak, happiness and misery, so they would consider themselves, and be considered, as equals.
The Fourth Dimension is the lost distance between different things; the distance where we do not see others, who look different, due to a physical and psychological challenge, a dimension the artist Raa'fat Zreik pursues to minimize the gap between the challenged and the those who must accept the challenged. Also, through his lens, the artist searches for the fourth dimension of Humanity at checkpoints where Palestinians pass in and out, a search for the inevitable human dimension between the soldier and the occupied, between the Palestinian and the colonialist, between the dominating and the oppressed. This paradox between the political and the social affects human emotions thus pointing out the ugly political situation the Palestinians suffer, and the difficult social conditions the challenged people experience, though each is challenged differently. He is searching for another dimension which enables the different sides to duel, document and, maybe, find solutions for the problems, political and social barriers, since they all are barriers after all: between what the authority politically imposes and what destiny makes of us. The artist in his turn is inviting us to live this dramatic chapter, hold on to it and share the search for these dimensions in solidarity with the members of these groups, whether politically or socially.
In my eyes, the social triumph is the political one; we cannot win politically as long as we do not care for each other, for our children, women, elderly and for the disadvantaged. The Fourth Dimension is the green light artist Raa'fat Zreik sheds to give one another respect and aspiration to these inevitable issues and to pursuing them.
Farid Abu Shqara
Comments