Deanna Hitti’s latest work focuses on the
romanticism of Eastern traditions to highlight issues of exploitation,
challenging viewers to question the selective forms of acceptance,
for an optimistic sense of a possibility for change.
Hitti emphasises the romantic notion of an exotic
arabesque and decorative style within her work. Producing large
banners of warm colours and textures with a strong grid effect,
viewers are drawn into the interlacing rhythms of arabic music,
text and patterns. To reassert her rich cultural heritage as
a child of Lebanese parents, gold is used to evoke the traditional
melody of the “UDE” and it’s past “VOICES”.
Ultimately music is part of a shared universal experience that succumbs
to commercial ideals through repetition, falsefing it’s true
meaning. Emphasis on the “SOLO” and her decision to create
prints of a“Unique State” counteracts that. Hitti’s
repetitive use of ambiguous arab text makes it illegible for Western
viewers, symbolising a lack of understanding. Simultaneously the confrontation
of the bold arabic text, instills within the spectators’ fear
of the “other”, creating an uncertainty, which reflects
the current political state of affairs.
Grace Longato
