Review of The Map Is Not The Territory - Parallel Paths: Palestinians, Native Americans, Irish

posted on: Oct 8, 2013

A complex look at tangled situations, “The Map is Not the Territory” expands beyond the Jerusalem Fund Gallery Al-Quds’s usual focus on Palestinian issues to include Ireland’s historic divisions and the United States’ and Canada’s treatment of their indigenous population. Made by 39 artists and mostly on paper, the nearly 70 pieces are grouped into such subcategories as “Occupation/Wall” and “Home/Diaspora.” Their approach ranges from symbolic to specific and from playful to polemical.

Some artworks combine elements from the three rather different conflicts. Mona El-Bayoumi’s “Lucky Can’t Find a Piece of Land to Sit and Eat His Falafel Peacefully” collages stereotypical images from commercial food packaging, including Lucky Charms’ leprechaun and Land O’Lakes butter’s Indian maid. Fatin Al-Tamimi and LisaMarie Johnson photographed Palestinian-flag-waving marchers on Dublin’s once-contested streets. Helen Zughaib’s “Woven in Exile” shows a veiled woman in front of a colorful Navajo quilt. Rawan Arar’s shot of a West Bank camp shows a spray-painted welcome, “You Are Now Entering Free Dheisheh,” inspired by an oft-photographed sign in Derry, Northern Ireland.

Among the motifs are maps, walls and passports. Rajie Cook’s “Epitaph for a Roadmap” depicts an unfolded blank sheet, lacking any path to the future, while Manal Deeb adds symbolic images to her grandfather’s actual Palestinian passport. Malaquias Montoya’s “Undocumented” depicts a faceless person snared on barbed wire, and John Halaka’s “Forgotten Survivors” superimposes an old map – with Jerusalem designated in Arabic as “Al Quds” – atop photos of refugees.

There is, inevitably, an abundance of text. The simplest example is Zughaib’s “Beit/Salaam,” whose spiraling calligraphy repeats the words for “home” and “peace.” It’s a gentle mantra for a show that’s more often bristling.

Mark Jenkins
The Washington Post