HEONG GALLERY- YOU ARE NOT YOU AND HOME IS NOT HOME
Precarious Passage, 2023-present
Books, mudguards, resin, burnt matches
A copy of MacGregor’s books of the series A History of the World in 100 Objects with a hole bored through - in which the artist placed one of his boats.
Why go to The Heong Gallery when Issam Kourbaj is at Kettles Yard?
Because this exhibition in its own right, has by virtue of its size and shape - a sharper definition. And it contains some extraordinary works of art .It could be one of the most powerful exhibitions you ever see. Nowhere else are we prompted to truly contemplate the lives of migrant in such a cogent analytical way. It offers a brutal but brilliant account of the lives and deaths of so many Syrians over the past ten terrible years as their country is engulfed by suffering and destruction. Issam Kourbaj’s relentless inventiveness is somehow honed into a series of complicated, images.The pieces are intriguing and sometimes beautiful in themselves. Yet they represent one man’s min, id , never far from his native land, never forgotten and never abandoned. Art here is in the service of.a profound protest against the cruelty of all governments, including our own. Yet it is the artist’s endeavour to register. in our own imagination an indelible expression of longing for the life he once led.
Migrant Shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea (to 15 June 2023)
Map of Europe and Mediterranean - marked with the number of lives lost in boats. This maps precisely as can be assessed the amount of people drowned and lost in the past ten years of mass flight..
Nightscape: Upside Down, Inside Out, 2024 Quilt, pillow, metal stakes
Rarely mentioned in accounts of the is the sleep deprivation that accompanies uncertain journeys to safety is the torment of sleeplessness when every moment might be your last, and sleep is luxury impossible to find. The contrast between the familiar duvet and the dreadful iron hails, reminiscent of the Crucifixion , outline the suffering , mundane as it is , of having nowhere to lay your head and danger at every turn..
Keep Them at Bay, 2023
Sardine tins on a wood base
An image of the Bibby Stockholm, the asylum moored ship, made from sardine tins its cruelty has already claimed one young man’s life - On 12 December 2023, 27-year-old Leonard Farruku was found to have taken his own life on the Bibby Stockholm..
Stamps .Beautiful individually but here marked with the names and pleas of the disappeared. One of the most compelling exhibits, on one side stamps of history full of hope and optimism,.On the other desperation
Little boats move towards the light window of the Gallery
The Sky is Sinking, 2023
Welded and embossed lead
A lifejacket made of lead - this essential equipment is often faulty and holds the wearer face down in the water to drown.Sea crossings mean the only protection from falling overboard, capsizing, and shipwreck is a basic lifejacket . These lifejackets are of little use on the open seas and can cause wearers to be trapped face-down in the water. The artist has recast the ubiquitous buoyancy aid to show the deadly consequences of false hope and the stark choices that are made by migrants every day.
On the left -The Map of Absence, 2024
Perforated vintage 1960s Butka Falcon camping tentMillions of the world’s displaced peoples live in temporary and makeshift dwellings, making the tent a potent symbol of the absence.of home.The artist has repurposed this vintage tent to create, through perforations, a map of his neighbourhood in Syria, from a map drawn by his brother. Their family home is marked by the charred circle. It is a map of absence as the artist can no longer visit the Syria of his childhood and youth.
The Heong Gallery is on Regent Street. Step inside the gates of Downing ( yes, they want you to do that) and follow the path round to the left. There the gallery waits. Look up and you will see the spire of OLEMS form a lovely focus over the roofs and trees. There is a garden there too. Gallery is open Wednesday - Sunday from noon until 5 pm.
