W I T N E S S
Witness is the third body of work I have been making on political disappearance and state sponsored violence. It is the final piece in a trilogy that includes Disappearance and Evidence.
Throughout the history of art, trees have often been used as a trope to refer to the embodiment of an omniscient witness to time. Becasue they mature at one physical location over years, decades, and sometimes even centuries, they have been given the stature of time's witness in fable, literature and many of the visual arts.
In the 1980's and 1990's the Gadaffi regime performed scores of assasinations on Libyan dissidents living abroad. Although often unwitnessed they were perpetrated in the most spectacular way possible in order to deter further resistance.
Each of the trees in this body of work are within metres of where a Gaddafi dissident was killed in Rome.
Sites Where Libyan Exiles Were Killed
by the Gaddafi Regime in Rome
Salem Rtemi.
March 21st, 1980.
Via del Castro Pretorio.
Abdul Jalil Aref.
April 19th, 1980.
Via Vittorio Veneto.
Abdallah Mohammed el Khazmi
May 10th, 1980.
Via Principe Amedeo.
Mohammed Fuad Abu Hajar
May 21st, 1980.
Via Gioberti.
Mohammed Salim Fezzani
May 21st, 1980.
Via Farini.
Mohammed Saad Bedjet
March 1st, 1985.
Piazza di Santa Maria Maggiore.
Abdel Halim Abdel Mahmoud Reda
February 17, 1986.
Via Val Maggia, Monte Sacro.
Exhibitions.
Purdy Hicks Gallery London
May 12 - June 9 2016
Houston FotoFest International.
March - April 2016.
Rick Wester Fine Art. New York, NY.
September 12 -October 24 2015.
Gouen Museum of Photography, Busan Korea.
August 29 - November 24, 2015.
Publications.
Evidence, Monograph.
Schilt Publishing
Amsterdam
November 2014.
Photoworks Annual
November 2015
PhotoDot Korea
August 2015