Performance Artist – Tarek Al-Ghoussein

Action art of Tarek Al-Ghoussein

Palestinian / Kuwaiti Artist- Performance Art, Photography,

Al-Ghoussein’s work explores the boundaries between landscape photography, self-portraiture and performance art. Evocative photographs depicting abandoned spaces and objects examine both personal and general associations with the Middle East. His photographs of deteriorating buildings do not seek to glamorize the decay but neither are they a detached form of documentation. In these somewhat sardonic works, Al-Ghoussein lingers on the traces of human presence and the attempts to create expressions of individuality within an unsatisfactory habitat. Al-Ghoussein captures images of places and objects that will soon cease to exist, preserving the narrative of the spaces and their former inhabitants. 

Inserting himself into some of the landscape images, Al-Ghoussein appears as a lone figure wearing a kaffiyeh (a traditional Palestinian headdress). The charged symbolism of the artists heritage was clearly demonstrated during a self-portrait shoot; the artist was subjected to a police interrogation for wearing a kaffiyeh whilst gazing towards a distant Palestine. The resulting photographs are quietly contemplative, inviting viewers to reassess their assumptions and stereotypes.

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