Raafat Ishak
Raafat Ishak | Egypt/Australia b.1967 | And government no.16 1993-95 | Oil on canvas | Gift of James Mollison, AO, through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation 2010. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program | Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | © The artist
The Hand, the Eye & the Heart | 1 October 2011 — 12 February 2012 | GOMA | Free admission
Raafat Ishak’s work speculates on the nature of government, statehood, national borders and identity, as well as ideas of home, belonging and citizenship. Using a formal, understated visual language, Ishak roams freely among art-historical antecedents, across centuries, cultures and within his own locality for inspiration.
In this selection of paintings from his And government 1993–95 series, Ishak combines and deconstructs elements from an expansive, and at times contradictory, archive of imagery that includes logos, symbols and flags, trash culture, autobiographical details and Arabic text, architecture and art-historical motifs. Ishak seamlessly mixes the personal with the political, the actual with the imagined, in a way that highlights the interdependency of these relationships and explores the circularity and dissemination of cultural artefacts.
