Jordanian artist taps absurd for 'Camel in the Room'
With iconic imagery such as camels and locks, artist Raed Ibrahim explores the complexities of Middle Eastern identity, memory and the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
Raed Ibrahim, a 46-years-old Jordanian artist, works in an eclectic range of formats from abstract oil painting to street signs, to dress and embroidery and found artifacts.
Ibrahim's new exhibit “A Camel in the Room” plays out in four different galleries at Darat al Funun — the Khalid Shoman Foundation's arts complex in Amman — where the artist explores the relationship between objects and memory, truth and storytelling.
It's a Middle Eastern twist on the 19th century Russian fable "The Inquisitive Man," about the museum visitor who notices all the tiny animals in the exhibit but not the massive taxidermied elephant in the room.
The exhibit calls attention to an unexamined side of seemingly familiar iconography including landmark buildings, tourist trinkets and national flags.
