Mixed-media installations evoking the plight of Syrian refugees premiere in the U.S. at Trinity Church Wall Street in Lower Manhattan. The work by Syrian-born, UK-based artist Issam Kourbaj housed in a tent in the Trinity churchyard, is a ‘camp’ constructed out of thousands of ‘tents’ made from waste materials, such as medicine packaging and discarded books, which are marked with Kourbaj’s distinctive black lines (based on Arabic calligraphy and traditional mourning ribbons). The ‘camp’ is surrounded by a ‘fence’ of burnt matches, which reference the irreversible changes in everyday Syrian life and also the loss of thousands of lives. A related work at the Parish Center features an interactive installation that visitors can contribute to and a fence of burnt matches. The matches will increase in number over the course of the exhibition, counting the days since the Syrian uprising began in March 2011.
On December 17, 7 PM at Trinity Church, Kourbaj and curator Louisa Macmillan will talk about this work.
