Faris Alshomali

The work of Palestinian artists is usually understood in relation to colonial politics and Palestinians’ liberation aspirations (Hochberg 2021; Boullata 2009; Ankori 2006; Sherwell 2011; Makhoul and Hon 2020; Shabout 2007; Strohm 2012; Slitine 2022). This conversation about the politics of Palestine’s art, however, tends to a formalist analysis of representations within the frames of artwork. It tends to offer analyses of content and form without highlighting the social life of artworks. It interprets the significance and meaning of art against the backdrop of broader Palestine politics but neglects the sociality of artworks: how artists make art, how artworks are received and picked up by various art world professionals and audiences, and how artworks then create new relations as they circulate in the global art world. My doctoral research is an inquiry into the social life of artworks. I will document art in-motion, following its movement and itineraries starting from its inception in artists’ studios. My research moves beyond the formalist analysis of the politics of art, and instead asks how the circulation of art is negotiated, facilitated, denied, constrained, diverted, and conditioned by various actors in Palestine and the global art world.