Rayyane Tabet

Rayyane Tabet auf MyArtSpace

Rayyane Tabet's Fossils is inspired from his childhood in Beirut, a city tormented by war, fear and death. In this mixed-media installation, petrified suitcases literally represent the permanent state of constant mobility that the Lebanese at present find themselves in. Tabet's solidified luggage seems to suggest that the unpredictable nature of life in Lebanon during the civil war, with the enduring possibility of having to evacuate your home at any given moment and the compulsive outlook of having your bags packed just in case, became normalized in the way the Lebanese organize their lives and their habitats today; this normalization manifests itself in a perpetually overwhelming, unconscious urge, perhaps even readiness, to escape. In Tabet's work, the suitcases, which are encased in concrete and which have been transformed from mobile containers into architectural buildings, stand as substitutes for the home. Fossils is a memorial, then, to the dwelling no more.

Born in Lebanon in 1983, Rayyane Tabet is an artist and architect who lives and works in New York. In his installations, Tabet utilizes everyday objects such as mattresses, soap bars and suitcases in surreal ways, investing them with symbolic meanings.

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