Amale-Freiha-Khlat-crafting-memorylane.jpg

Crafting Memory Lane

Amale Freiha Khlat is a Lebanese British visual artist, questioning the role of the images and its dissemination as well as the role of the spectators.

Crafting Memory Lane, 2017. High-definition single-channel video (color), 1/1 (Ed. of 1 + AP) / 7min.39sec., loop.

Cafe Gallery Project, London. Various dimensions. 2017

Cafe Gallery Project, London. Various dimensions. 2017

Crafting Memory Lane 2, The Odious Smell of Truth. 2017 Hockney Gallery, London

Crafting Memory Lane 2, The Odious Smell of Truth, 2017. Hockney Gallery, London

Crafting Memory Lane, Two Sequences, 2017. High-definition video (color). 42sec loop,

Minecraft imagery, archived photographs of the Lebanese civil war, drone footage of conflict zones. Three different ways of seeing destruction: the game, the archive, the aerial view. Layered together with voices recounting memories of growing up during the war, fighter jets in the background.

Sound passes through barriers. It fills space. It sculpts the void.

The work is viewed from a tête-à-tête rocking chair, two people sitting back to back. One watching. One only listening. The rocking chair is designed for comfortable relaxation. The unease is deliberate.

Crafting Memory Lane 2: The Odious Smell of Truth takes its subtitle from a phrase used by Kissinger during the Watergate crisis. Adopted as the title of RAGE Collective’s first exhibition at the Royal College of Art in 2017. The truth that power finds unbearable.