Art Forces Peacemaker Gallery
Olympia Arts Walk
Friday, October 2nd from 5-10pm &
Saturday, October 3rd from 12-6pm
Join us at the mural & in the Historic Labor Temple,
on the corner of State & Capitol Way,
Friday, October 2nd from 5-9 pm & Saturday, October 3rd from 12-6 pm
Unveiling of a new leaf:
the Olympia-Rafah Solidarity Mural honors Aysenur Ezgi-Eygi
Join us on Saturday, October 3rd for the installation of a new leaf on the Olympia-Rafah Solidarity Mural, on the corner of State & Capitol Way. There will be poems, politics and art before and after, as well as words from Aysenur's husband, the Corries, and from the director of the mural project. At 2pm the scissor lift rises and we'll share a moment to honor Aysenur and all whose lives have been lost in the struggle for liberation of the Palestinian people.
Faces from Erased Places
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“When circumstances are made real by another’s testimony, it becomes possible to envision change.”
- James Baldwin
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On display in the gallery October 2nd & 3rd
John Halaka's portrait testemonies visualize the tensions between the emotional presence and physical absence of an indigenous population that continues to be displaced from its homeland. Each image is informed by personal stories of expulsion, separation, survival and resistance, all of which define the lives of Palestinians in exile.
The elders that appear in these portrait stanzas were displaced from their homes and homeland in 1948, while their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren have grown up in exile, the majority struggling for subsistence
in various refugee camps.
Seeing these stories as photographs personalizes the abstract notion of the displaced masses, making the experiences of the refugees more tangible, comprehensible and irrefutable, and offer a poetic space to contemplate our personal and collective relationships and responsibilities to the realities of displaced individuals, communities and populations.
As a whole, this series honors the cultural survival of Palestinians who have
been geographically divided as a people but are psychologically united in
their struggle against colonial repression.
