John Halaka
Artist Statement
I consider myself an activist artist whose creative work serves as a vehicle for meditation on personal, cultural and political concerns. I create allegorical images in my paintings and present personal narratives in my films, in order to raise questions, for myself as well as for the viewer, about some of the pressing issues of our time. Over the past couple of years, my creative work has expanded to include documentary filmmaking as one of the languages I employ to convey personal narratives about the construction, expression and perception of identity. The film projects that I am currently working on are a direct extension, albeit in a different medium, of the work I have produced throughout my career. For additional information about my documentary film projects please visit my other web site at sittingcrowproductions.com.
The primary focus of my work over the past two and a half decades can be summarized as an ongoing reflection on the frailty and resilience of the human condition and the persistent search for self-realization in the face of personal and cultural self-delusion. My experiences as an artist of Palestinian descent have shaped my pictorial investigations of cycles of repression and displacement, as well as an exploration of the relationships between desire, denial and instability in the construction and expression of identity. My recent and current work investigates issues of identity construction from personal, familial and political perspectives.