The Lebanese artist Youssef Ghazzawi references the idea of home in his works using the simple symbol of a house. In this abstract pastel on paper, some might see the triangular roof and square body of the house, dissected and tumbling in a dark cloud.  Hence, the feeling of “home” is destroyed, dark and shaken to pieces. Over the years, the artist lost his home three times to Israeli bombings.

Created in exile by Youssef Ghazzawi and then exhibited in the Qatar Biennale, “Salute to Naji el Ali” has symbolic imagery that references socio-political discourses. A famous Palestinian cartoonist, Naji el Ali was known for the political criticism of the Arab regimes and Israel in his works. Before he was assassinated in exile, El Ali created the character Handala, a young witness of the events depicted in the illustrations, who subsequently became an icon of Palestinian defiance. Ghazzawi inscribes on the back of this work that the vertical shape is Handala (Palestine) with his head surrounded by sunflower petals that follow the sun, illuminating the darkness. His other symbols are crafted in a style that is both child-like and surreal, such as the upside down house, allegorically referencing instability and displacement. The sober mixed media on cardboard uses the color grey that is “our Arab time before we find our true identity”.