My Last Self-Portrait

2013 | Durational performance

My Last Self Portrait, Performance documentation, Beirut Exhibition Center, 2013

My Last Self Portrait, Performance documentation, BEC, 2013

My Last Self Portrait, Performance documentation, Beirut Exhibition Center, 2013

This work is a performance based on Khalil Saleeby's last work before he died - a self-portrait of the artist looking backwards over his shoulder towards the viewer. Khalil Saleeby is one of the founders of modern art in Lebanon, but his life was cut short when a dispute with fellow villagers culminated in his murder. In this piece, young budding artists (aspiring painters) were invited to sit inside the exhibition space with a canvas and an easel in front of Saleeby's portrait, and were asked to repeatedly copy the painting in their own style. Through this interaction an allegorical trajectory transpires: Saleeby is looking back over his shoulder at the future, embodied by the young art student; the young artist is looking forward towards the past, embodied by Saleeby. This performative gesture explores how conceivable it is to become an artist in modern Lebanon, within a society that effectively could "kill" an artist at any given moment.

My Last Self Portrait, Performance documentation, Beirut Exhibition Center, 2013