In July 2013 Sharq Gallery in Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles showcasted a selection of Latitude 34.
I want to thank Nahid Massoud and Robert Rosenstone for opening the doors of their gallery and offering me the opportunity to share the work with Los Angeles this summer.
I did show one photograph at least from every country I visited so far. I also created a specific work for Sharq, a gallery oriented towards the east and machrek. I created a work that speaks of the filters trough which we see, understand, filter the world around us.One of those filters is cultural. I used a specific screen pattern of Moroccan mosaic and Moucharabieh, those wooden screen that filter the light in houses and courtyard as a premise and overlaid the pattern onto the photograph
I expected some frustrations from the viewer, and there were some! perhaps more so from those unaccustomed to these screens.It definitely forces you to look closer, edits out some parts of the photographs, the same way our mind edits out part of our surroundings , clues or whatever is convenient or not for us to edit out, whatever we were trained to notice or not, whatever our mind is more inclined to see or not. I wished to question challenge that, poke the american viewer who is oh so used to have everything over explained, over obvious.
It was a pleasure showing this to the public of the palisades and I hope to be back again with another instalment .
My journey is not finished yet!
- Malika Sqalli Sharq Latitude 34 Exhibit