John Halaka

John Halaka’s drawing, created with acrylic paints and rubber stamped prints of the phrase “Forgotten Survivors,” memorializes the diaspora of the Palestinian people. Their forced marches from their homes recall the Cherokee ‘Trail of Tears,’ a similar exodus that bordered on genocide. It also challenges the wholesale historical revisionism which has sought to erase their history from memory. By maintaining the cultural anonymity of the figures, Halaka underscores the universality of political displacement and invites the viewer to project his or her own cultural history and responsibilities as oppressed, oppressor, or both onto the image.

John Halaka
Born 1957, El Mansoura, Egypt
Education. MFA in Painting and Drawing, University of Houston, Houston, Texas
BA in Art, CUNY, Brooklyn, New York
Lives in San Diego, CA.
For more info… please visit www.johnhalaka.com

John Halaka, “Stripped of Their Identity and Driven from Their Land”, 1993/1997/2003, from the series: Forgotten Survivors, rubber stamped ink and acrylic on canvas, 87″ x 272″