The Department of Architecture and Design of the American University of Beirut cordially invites you to a public lecture entitled “Forgotten Survivors: Reflections on Palestinian Landscapes of Desire and Denial” given by John Halaka on Monday January 09, 2012 at 6.30 pm, at ALH (Architecture Lecture Hall), Dar Al-Handassah Architecture Building, AUB, Beirut.
John Halaka’s drawings, paintings and documentary film projects are informed by the Palestinian experiences of displacement and the persistent desire of the refugees to reclaim their homes and homeland. He will discuss the development of his recent artwork and the synergetic relationship between his drawings and documentary film projects.
John Halaka is a visual artist and Professor of Visual Arts at the University of San Diego, where he has taught since 1991. He is currently a Fulbright Research Scholar, as well as Affiliate Scholar, at the Department of Architecture and Design of the American University of Beirut. Professor Halaka is residing in Lebanon during the 2011-2012 academic year to develop a documentary video/oral-history/drawing project informed by the diverse experiences of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. His project is entitled: Portraits of Desire and Denial.
Halaka is an activist artist whose creative work serves as a vehicle for meditation on personal, cultural and political concerns. He creates images that raise questions for himself as well as for the viewer, about some of the pressing issues of our time. His experiences as an artist of Palestinian descent shape his pictorial investigations of cycles of repression and displacement as well as the personal and political relationships between desire, denial and instability. His recent work in both painting and documentary filmmaking investigates issues of identity construction from personal, familial and political perspectives.
