The opening of ‘In a Different Light’, a photography exhibition by Katie Ramadan, will be at the Sudfeh Gallery-Restaurant in Nazareth on Thursday, February 16 2012, from 8-11pm. The exhibition includes thirty photographs broken into eight separate series. The aesthetic flow of the series, meaningful and exciting to the eye, includes explorations of the home, public spaces and individuality.
Curated by Walid Mawed, the exhibition is sponsored by Sudfeh Gallery-Restaurant, Shama Jewelry, Nazareth Cultural and Tourism Association, Grand Forum Abu Nassar Insurance, Chickers and Kawar.
The work is an invitation to explore. Moving from the comfort of the familiar, the couch at home, with kids as willing subjects, Katie Ramadan’s photography takes us through long halls in homes that are familiar yet strange. Stepping out into the public spaces of Nazareth, Toronto, Mumbai and Paris, the eye is drawn to the varied temporal-spatial arrangements of these cities – where feelings of community, loneliness, and alienation are communicated through the lens.
Dressed in black and white, encasing the exploration in the hue of calm, the work is an encounter with the unfamiliar. It addresses difficult subjects like the impermanence of life and the daily tussle with despair. Yet, making strange, as black and white visuals enable in a world seen in colour, allows for a dance with our fears but also the discovery of our ability to be amazed. Photography makes constant and permanent fleeting moments and what marks Katie’s work is her ability to pick that moment, to dress it in a crisp frame and on occasion to allow for meaningful palettes of colour, all in the aim of allowing the audience to meditate on life frozen; life’s moments which are often cold, but can also be warm, trusting, intimate and real.
The work is an invitation to share in the look of a child that trusts unconditionally, in the intimacy of the home, in the ‘always other’ public space, in the emotional frost of cities and in the coming of the evening. It is a call to step out of the self and into the other. In that overture, often tempered with anxiety, we attain a visual of the other and over time, of ourselves in the other. It is a call to listen to that which cannot be spoken, an invitation to silence and meditation, a call to courage where the unfamiliar eventually leads us on the path back home.
Exhibition Curator: Walid Mawed
[Event Poster]