by Fatima AbdulKarim
RAMALLAH, Jan, 22 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian artist Tayseer Barakat has started a solo art exhibition in the West Bank city of Ramallah, with a theme focusing on the refugees and their quest for a peaceful life.
The exhibition, titled "Shoreless Sea," showcases 40 paintings and presents a visual account of refugees travelling by sea to explore a way out of tensions and violence.
Refugees from the Middle East and North Africa region dive into uncertain sea voyages, which take them into "figurative and self-exploring journeys in space and time," he said.
"This journey is usually filled with dreams and aspirations, and with disappointments too," said Barakat.
While some paintings show happiness, survival and arrival, the majority show tragedies of refugees, who are occupied with thoughts over their uncertain destinies ahead.
Barakat has been working on the paintings since 2017.
He revealed to Xinhua that as he worked on these paintings, he found himself preoccupied with the story of his own family's journey as refugees. He moved from Gaza to Egypt, where he received education, and then settled down in the West Bank.
The artist said he feels separated from the Mediterranean Sea where he grew up, because he is not free to return to the Gaza Strip, where he was born.
He said he has for a long time avoided addressing the sea in his works, because it stirs up a feeling of deprivation.
Throughout some 30 years of his career, Barakat has been using wood, glass and metal as media for his art, and mostly applied neutral and dark colors.
However, his new exhibition adopted various materials, media and colors.
Mamoun Shreiteh, an art practitioner, who has worked with Barakat for nearly two decades, said, "The exhibition carries messages of the Palestinian people's suffering, especially that of children."
"The paintings focuses on the color orange, which makes the audience to contemplate," said Shreiteh.
The exhibition was attended by many art lovers in Ramallah, where many stood long before the paintings.
The 60-year-old artist was born in Jabaliya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, and has been living in Ramallah since early 1980s, where he launched his lifetime career in arts and joined some other artists in establishing the first Palestinian artists' union as well as other artistic and cultural initiatives.
