This Palestinian artist's candy creations 'defetishize' the house keys refugees took with them
CBC Arts | Posted: January 27, 2017 3:59 PM | Last Updated: January 27, 2017
'They thought that they were coming back in a few days'
Ramallah visual artist Majd Abdel Hamid is making colourful — and edible — candy art to grapple with and remove the power from a potent symbol he thinks represents stasis.
We need to not cling on to symbols that we created. Why are we creating new gods? We're already struggling with the ones we have. - Majd Abdel Hamid, artist
When Palestinian refugees left their homes for Lebanon or Jordan, Majd says they took their house keys with them thinking "they were coming back in a few days." Since then, the keys have become a symbol of the refugees, with one giant metallic key from Bethlehem even travelling to the Berlin Biennale. The Bethlehem key is intended to be a "manifestation of nonviolent expression and a means of overcoming victim portrayals."
Majd, whose work deals with national identity, trauma and time, disagrees with the key symbol's veneration. He thinks that the "hyper-fetishization" of the keys has become a "symbol of waiting" that Palestinians shouldn't "cling to."
Because of these symbols that are becoming more and more dead, people are losing interest in any kind of collective dialogue. You're just... waiting. - Majd Abdel Hamid, artist
"They key is the symbol of the waiting. I wanted to defetishize symbols and especially the key." - Majd Abdel Hamid, artist
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Video edited by Benoit Salin.