Shadi Habib Allah, From the series Evacuated Containers (detail), 2013
Graphite on paper, 220 x 320 cm
In 2009, Shadi Habib Allah was traveling to New York with a sculpture cast of a leg he had made in Palestine. Upon arrival at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, Habib Allah was interrogated about the use and meaning of the sculptural work. After being passed up the chain of security and responding to a myriad of questions, the artist was separated from the work and the sculpture was stripped of its recognition as an artwork, eventually being destroyed without the artist’s knowledge. An institutional aesthetic judgement that had unforeseen consequences.
Shadi Habib Allah regained his strength and developed a new body of work that he just showed at Dubai-based Green Art Gallery.
Wertical sat down with Shadi Habib Allah and discussed this decisive event.