Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on December 16, 2021

The monthlong annual arts event, organized by the city of Redmond in its Downtown Park, is meant to celebrate the winter holiday traditions, cultures, and faiths of the diverse Redmond community, according to the citys call for art. It was Sourour and Khalafs first public artwork, the capstone of months of work.

Along with other statements, including No to racism and Compassion, forgiveness, patience, mercy, one of the cubes faces featured the statement , which transliterates to Palestine is in the heart, along with the words, in English, Remember Palestine.

A few hours after completing the installation, the duos joy had dissipated. Instead, Sourour and Khalaf felt a deep sense of disappointment as they blacked out the word Palestine, in both Arabic and English. Later, after the rain had washed the paint away, they scratched off the letters with the metal edges of a pair of scissors and palette knife.

The artists, both Egyptian software engineers and calligraphy artists living in the area, said they were told through the citys cultural arts administrator, Chris Weber, that the word might be considered political, or offensive to some, Sourour and Khalaf said. (Weber declined to be interviewed for this story.) The artists said their freedom of expression had been curtailed.

We were instructed to either paint over it, or remove the panel or scratch it out, or else risk the entire art project being removed, Sourour said during an interview Monday evening. After arguing their case in vain, the artists said, they eventually complied because they didnt want to remove the entire artwork. We were going to comply, of course, because these are the instructions from the public city-state, but we weren't happy with the instructions, Sourour said.

Rather than ending the night in a celebratory mood, we sort of spent it consoling each other while we vandalized the artwork we spent a month and a half building, he said.

It was a very upsetting moment for us, Sourour added. We came to the United States believing and we still believe in this it's a country where you're free to express yourself, you're free to express your identity.

In a statement released Tuesday, the citys parks and recreation director, Carrie Hite (who oversees the art department and also declined to be interviewed for this story), apologized to the broader community but not to the artists specifically. The goal of the city staffs actions were not to participate in the active erasure of Palestinian voices and culture, Hite wrote. But she maintained the city was blindsided by how the artwork differed from the artists original proposal, which planned something astronomy-themed. In an email on Tuesday, Redmond city communications manager Jill Smith said the phrase on the artwork could be considered by some to not fit with the theme of the event. (Smith declined to clarify who she meant by some and said the altered artwork would remain on view).

But in a second statement, released on Wednesday, Hite backtracked from this decision to leave the erased work up, saying the language would be restored. After further discussion, discernment, and conversation with one of the artists, I better understand the meaning and significance of the original message for the artist and many of our Palestinian community members, she wrote. After the past few days, it has become clear to me what the removal of the words Remember Palestine means to community members, and for that I offer my deepest apologies.After more reflection, it is important for this celebration to honor the artists [sic] process and product.

The intent was not to cause harm to anyone; but it has become clear that harm was done, Hite continued. As we seek to do our part to ensure all community members have a sense of belonging, the artist will restore the artwork.

"I greatly appreciate the response from the city," Sourour wrote in an email on Wednesday.I thanked the director when she called me on the phone, and I got a call from Chris [Weber], the event project manager to coordinate with me about a time to go and restore the art piece. He was very supportive, offering a canopy and a heater to hasten the drying of the paint when we implement the restoration. I appreciate that very much, and it was unfortunate that this had to happen at all from the beginning.On Wednesday evening, the artists finished repainting the work and restored it to its former state.

See original here:

Redmond officials told artists to remove the word 'Palestine' from public artwork - Crosscut

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