Exclusion

How A Local Exhibition Was Cancelled After Pulling A Palestinian-American Artist’s Work

Natalie Demaree

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This is True Stories in Sound. I’m Natalie Demaree.

Phil Garip loved working in glass. His transition to glass from photography helped him feel better about the doubts he was having as an artist. It gave him something tangible to cultivate.

When he moved to New York and got a job at UrbanGlass, he was thrilled. And he worked a lot, spending hours in the studio honing his skills.

GARIP a12

You know I spent the last seven years in neon kind of just like learning how to bend. It’s a really difficult craft.

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And then, just a few months ago, it looked like he was going to get a break.

GARIP a2 pt 1

I was working at Urban Glass as an instructor and a neon technician. And I was invited by one of the staff members who manages the gallery space to put work in a staff exhibition.

GARIP a5

This was my, kind of, my first opportunity to have my work in a real gallery space. Um, I mean I put work up in like friend’s shows and like DIY spaces in Brooklyn and things like that, but never in this official capacity. 

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This was also the first staff exhibition at Urban Glass, and it opened in just a few weeks, so Garip had to work quickly.

GARIP a2 pt 2

I submitted the mock up, didn’t really hear anything back about it.  

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So he kept working on his piece… 

GARIP a2 pt 2

And then about two weeks from the show opening, I was told there were conversations happening at the board level that were against putting my work in. [heartbeat fade in] 

Um, and then a week later, I had a meeting with the executive director and the chair of the board, where they told me that an executive committee of the board members decided [heartbeat fade out] not to put my work in the show. 

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He was crushed and confused. And to make matters worse, he wasn’t even given the opportunity to talk to the board about their concerns. The decision was made, and it was final.

[music fade in]

GARIP a13

So, the sign I made says, From the River to the Sea, in block text. It starts out red when you turn it on, and then slowly it turns from red to blue because of the bead of mercury that I put in. 

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Garip is Palestinian on his father’s side. His great grandparents were born in Bethlehem, in Beit Jala. He wanted to use this opportunity to talk about the ongoing devastation in Gaza as war has raged between Israel and Hamas.

GARIP a7

My connection to Palestine is really by blood. I was born in New Jersey, and that’s part of the conversation I wanted to have in that, like, the need to advocate for this — for equal rights for Palestinians has trickled down to even someone like me, who is pretty far removed from Palestinian life and Palestinian society and     Palestinian culture in general. 

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But the phrase “from the river to the sea” is controversial, understood by some, including members of UrbanGlass’s board of directors, as a call for Israel’s destruction. 

The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish advocacy group, described the slogan as “an antisemitic charge denying the Jewish right to self-determination” in an article published on the organization’s website in October.

But Garip said he doesn’t see it that way. [fade in music] For him, and for many Palestinians, the phrase is a peaceful call for freedom and liberation of Palestinian land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

GARIP a9

That’s always how I’ve viewed it and that’s always how I’ve experienced it.

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Garip said the crux of the piece is the bottom part — a smaller bit of text that says ‘if i must die, you must live.’

It comes from a poem by Palestinian professor and writer Refaat Alareer who was killed in an air strike in northern Gaza last December. [fade in poem in different languages?] 

Since his death, his poem “If I Must Die” has been shared widely and translated into dozens of languages.

GARIP a14 pt 2

How I interpret it is that it’s about storytelling and continuing to tell palestinian stories. If there’s a need for palestinian death, you need to tell the story. 

[fade out music]

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After Garip learned of the board’s decision, he reached out to all the artists involved and asked them to do something for him. Hana Kimura was one of them…

Hana a1

Phil had texted all of us and had said hey they pulled my work would you all be down to, you know, pull your work as well in solidarity of me.

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Seventeen of the 19 artists agreed.

Hana a3

I did not feel comfortable with them pulling out Phil’s work, especially as Palestinian artists are being censored right now. 

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And the show at UrbanGlass was canceled.

Hana a2

Qe wanted to say, hey, if you’re gonna pull his work, you can’t, without any conversation, any anything, then we’re gonna pull our work too.

GARIP a6

I think it’s particularly troubling in that it’s like an avoidance of the discussion of the topic at all. 

This was always about genocide for me, and I was making the work because there were people dying and because I wanted to talk about that. 

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A few days later, Hana had an idea. She reached out to a contact at The People’s Forum, an educational and cultural space for grassroots organizations and individuals. She asked if they’d be interested in hosting the show.

Hana a4

They were really helpful. And immediately we’re wanting to support Phil. We kind of had a really short window, right, of like almost two days. So to install the whole show, and a whole new space in two days is pretty crazy, and we were able to get everyone’s pieces up. 

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She  said the turn out ended up being better than originally expected at UrbanGlass. She estimated about 75 to 100 people showed up.

Hana a5

I think everyone was just really excited to support Phil and still be able to display our work.

[waves music fade in]

GARIP a15

When I was making the piece I just kept thinking about my great grandparents and  if they ever went to the beach when the weather was nice when they were still able to do that and I just hope one day they can again or that I can and other Palestinians can.

[waves music fade out]

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The show ran at The People’s Forum March 6 through March 21st.

This is Natalie Demaree.