S t e v e S A B E L L A
Selected from 1998 |
2012 |
2011 |
EXODUS AND BACK
"It then seems as though Sabella’s In Transition hit the nail right on the head and snowballed into a mental ecstasy. In the same week that he shot images for In Transition, came Euphoria, “like an explosion!” Here, the images take on a chromosomal quality; the apparent veins and arteries clearly connect to one another and Sabella’s DNA is unmistakably lucid. He realised that there must be other “galaxies”, that his mental ascension couldn’t stop there – “I wanted to reach a supreme state of aesthetics” – and incidentally, a Beyond Euphoria began to take shape, the Arab Spring exploded into life." |
Euphoria
It is in this state of transition and investigation that the external reality penetrates violently and brings the artist back to his earthly roots. Sabella's introspective process melts and fuses with the recent events in the Arab world .... Agony and pain seem to be the price for Arabs to pay in order to enable them to start a process of liberation, awakening and rebirth. As an observer, there seems to be common traits between the artist’s condition and the Arab Revolution... The possibilities offered by the current historical events, and the reflection about himself and his constant transformation give birth to Sabella's last series Beyond Euphoria. FULL REVIEW PDF (in Italian) |
Steve Sabella in Conversation with Sara Rossino for the exhibition catalogue of The Changing Room curated by Aida Eltorie.
The world is entrapped in its own image. Any change that any country, nation wishes to undergo has to start with the nature of that image. That is, people need to understand image formation and the mechanisms that manage to change global perception. At a time where conquering the world physically is no more considered a viable option, it seems that conquering the image of the world is becoming or has become the New World Order. In other words what we are witnessing is the conquering and or the ‘Colonization of the Imagination’. What I wish is for people to understand how to liberate themselves from that colonization. |
IKONO TV Production - Artist of the Month of May
A visual journey into the four art projects of Steve Sabella. Three different episodes aired every hour till end of May, 2011. Because they are in medium resolution, it is advised that you let the episode download for few minutes first before you press the play button. Click on titles to view. Episode 3 - Euphoria / Beyond Euphoria Note that the episodes are copyrighted and any screening of them outside of Steve Sabella's web site that obtained special permission from IKONOTV will be considered an infringement of IKONOTV copyright. |
Life's Rich Pattern
...Now based in Berlin and London, his new photographs and photomontages, currently on show in his exhibition Euphoria and Beyond at the Empty Quarter Gallery in Dubai, offer a more joyful, vigorous viewpoint - challenging by pure coincidence the region's new energy engendered by what has become as the Arab Spring... Double Spread published on May 5, 2011 in the Arts & Life section page 7 |
The Empty Quarter Gallery
In contrast, the Euphoria triptych is a joyous retinal explosion. Cut and assembled from hundreds of fragments of trees, like those shown In Transition, the resulting photomontages of organic fluidity emanate cathartic relief and a transcendence of the state of ‘mental exile.’ Long years of self-interrogation have given way to a more stable personality, one open to expansion and to the appreciation of beauty and the sublime. It is also relevant that the production period of Sabella’s first post-Euphoria works coincided with the demonstration in Tunisia and Egypt. Beyond Euphoria relishes in a freedom never seen before in Sabella’s oeuvre, a freedom where possibilities are limitless and new fictional spaces beckon to be explored. |
Euphoria and Beyond
Light shines through the branches of trees, caught in floating movements, ephemeral and fragile like the first rays of morning light after a long and dark night. Here, a cautious hope enters Sabella’s universe, a hope that gains in momentum in “Euphoria”, a triptych celebrating the euphoric deliverance from the mental bonds of anxiety in what might be called a “mental heterotopia”. Through the use of a similar technique of multi-angled photomontages as in “In Exile”, each of the three single pieces show a kaleidoscope of up-rooted trees. But their up-rootedness does not make them appear doomed, rather they seem to stretch out their branches, circling around each other in a light-hearted dance. |
Bonhams
Euphoria (2010) heralds a lifting of the state of 'mental exile', the realisation that identity is liquid and situational and that choice of context is an option. It is perhaps not surprising that it was created in physical exile. Montaged from hundreds of shots of trees, the resulting image of organic fluidity signifies cathartic relief, emanating a sense of the ecstatic and the sublime. Anthropomorphised shapes dance against the softly pattered background forming ever new aesthetic possibilities in the promise of limitless expansion. READ ESSAY & SEE RESULT |
The MENASA Studio Dispatches, Art Dubai 16 March—19 March 2011
The MENASA Studio Dispatches are a series of sixty five-minute audio works, commissioned by The Island and Art Dubai Projects, by artists working across the North Africa, Middle East and South Asia regions. MORE INFO Steve Sabella speaks about his art journey from the mid-1990s till today. He talks about the disappearance of his birth city of Jerusalem and how he entered a state of mental exile and the consequences that followed. A complex journey that has many twists and a surprising end. |
Painting the Middle East with too Broad of a Brush?
Steve Sabella's installation, "Settlement" (2010), has six Israelis opposite one Palestinian, all seven clad in underwear, facing each other with a neutral stare. Their eyes also meet the gaze of the viewer, making him a discomfited witness. |
Steve Sabella. Settlement - Six Israelis & One Palestinian
Consequently, when we step inside this confrontational green-line that he has created, we find our bodies physically rotating in the space in order to get a better visual grip of either one of the two sides. With this, he wants us to realize that assuming any neutrality within the charged space that he has built is simply not feasible. We are forced to constantly navigate from one side to the other to maintain a complete physical detachment. Paradoxically, constant action becomes the symbol for no action, a metaphor for an eternal state of exile. |
2010 |
A Smithsonian in the Sand. With the opening of Mathaf, the first Arab Museum of Modern Art, Qatar is racing to turn itself into the cultural hub of the Middle East. The Economist
“Told, Untold, Retold”, the third show, brings together work by 23 contemporary artists. Among the most interesting are Jerusalem-born Steve Sabella’s photographs of Israeli and Palestinian men hardly distinguishable in their boxer shorts and the paintings on paper by Marwan Sahmarani, a Lebanese painter who was inspired by a famous 16th-century engraving by Albrecht Dürer." |
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Steve Sabella: In Exile "...These contorted passageways through his own psyche led the artist to the roots of his wounds and gave him an inkling of the possibility of healing. While the destructiveness of being uprooted was at the center of In Exile, Sabella’s newest works move, release and liberation into the foreground. Euphoria (2010) alludes to the blissful feeling of being freed of mental fetters. This feeling – possibly short-lived, as the artist himself concedes – is expressed in playful-seeming, uprooted trees..."
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Steve Sabella in Exile - Conversation with the Artist The first time you find yourself in front of the artworks which make up the In Exile series by Steve Sabella, you have a strange feeling of familiarity. Not with regards to the places which are featured in the images, fragments of a subjective reality which is alien to the viewer, details of the everyday London life which the artist has been living with his family for the past three years since he left the Old City of Jerusalem. These shards of captured memories, deconstructed and reconstructed, are intimate to Sabella because they belong to his daily dimension, but are distant from the spectator, lacking a familiar or recognizable reference, extracted from an anonymous anywhere. DOWNLOAD CATALOGUE - PDF
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Reflections on Palestine - THE EMPTY QUARTER DUBAI HIS MESSAGE IN A NUTSHELL: ‘Alienation is the new world syndrome.’ Steve Sabella’s images are without horizon: the abstract landscapes layer many images of one window over each other hundreds or thousands of times. It took Sabella a year to create five pieces using this process, and the result is a disorientating but visually arresting new landscape with no sky and no respite. DOWNLOAD REVIEW PDF |
Steve Sabella
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Steve Sabella - The Journey of Artistic Interrogation and Introspection
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Art Magazine Cover
Artwork on the Front & Back cover of the 6th edition of Contemporary Practices Art Journal. The same artwork went for a Christie's auction April 27, 2010 for the International Modern and Contemporary Art (Dubai). |
Radio Interview
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SETTLEMENT
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Territory in Exile - Exile of Identity
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Interview With Anna Seaman for The National newspaper UAE
Steve Sabella (whose photographic work In Exile, based on his conception that his city of birth, Jerusalem, does not exist, went to Zoom Art Fair) said the foundation was clearly formed according to vision and taste rather than on the basis on "art market fevers".Although it is too soon to tell if there have been any benefits from the overseas exposure, he said he had received many e-mails regarding his inclusion in Residua, which opened in October. "[This] is an indication that synergy is at work," he said. Mr Sabella said that the foundation had a sound reputation, with people in London, where he is living, congratulating him on being part of the collection. "The Barjeel Foundation can set an example of how to inject artists with critical acclaim," he said. |
Concrete Messages
On the infamous separation barrier between Israel and the Palestinian West Bank, street art meets politics as artists including Banksy, Blu, Ericailcane, Faile, JR, Know Hope, Paul Insect, Ron English, Sam3, Swoon and Steve Sabella leave have left messages for all to see. The work I presented on the wall portrayed Palestinians in a different way from how they are constructed in the mind of many Israelis. For example, when I take a cab in Jerusalem and I make it known to the driver that I’m a Palestinian, the first remark by the driver may be: 'But you don’t look Palestinian'. My answer would instantly be: 'What does a Palestinian look like?' So, I used images that challenge stereotypes and trigger the imagination. |
Steve Sabella
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| 2009 |
Steve Sabella
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Reconstructing Deconstruction
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Von Angesicht zu Angesicht (Face to Face)
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Jerusalem in the Heart Two Urban Artists in Exile
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2008 |
Sabella's Project Jerusalem in Exile aims at Liberating the City in the Imagination
It is possible that Sabella's upbringing in the city of Jerusalem, has influenced his unusual character. Born and raised in the Old City of Jerusalem, he felt from young age out of place. He says: "From young age, I felt out of place: at school, at home or at the neighborhood". This young Jerusalemite has become today one of the most important artists of his generation; he never stopped posing questions relating to belonging and identity in the general or personal understanding to the extent that led him to feel in exile at home. |
Steve Sabella in London: Life is a Short Exile, but...
In 2007, Sabella moved to live in London together with his partner and daughter Cecile. The academic goal was an excuse for Steve to leave the exile of Jerusalem, just to find himself in an even bigger exile. From the window of his London flat, his young child was contemplating. This is when he started taking photos of her looking through the window, which he afterwards, through photomontage, he multiplied - to more windows, more girls, in an effort to completely alienate the scene ... Through alienation and windows, Sabella wanted to convey the state of mind of living in exile. |
Selected Media on Jerusalem in Exile art project (2006) Learn more about Jerusalem in Exile - click here |
2007 |
Beyond Blue & Grey. Eyes Infinite Films, USA.
See Some Short Clips. To obtain full version contact Eyes Infinite Films Jerusalem in Exile - click here VIDEO |
Steve Sabella: Jerusalem in Exile and 'Yerushalayim' is not from Gold
In the last five years, Steve Sabella's art went through two transformations. The first relates to content where group or national subject matter started to appear in his art. It is as if he started to exit the introspective look that categorized his earlier works. Clearly, this has to do with his gaining of political awareness. Without doubt, this consciousness has been triggered by his individual journey that made him part of the Palestinian art scene. |
Steve Sabella from Jerusalem to Exile
His major riddle remains focused on Jerusalem where he is preparing his bags to leave it for London to complete his studies. Sabella might have reached his expiry date living in Jerusalem which he convinced us that it is now in exile. |
Two Sides to Every Story
Steve Sabella is interested in memory and identity. The 32-year-old photographer admits he had many reservations about the project. “Besides the fact that I prefer to work alone, I find the idea of projects for peace basically repulsive.” |
Steve Sabella: Volatile Identity. Postal Stamps from the Times of Globalization and Electronic Mail
Sabella comes from a generation born under occupation, and lived aside 'Israeli times'. His new project is Conceptual in nature where he poses a humorous but provocative thoughts regarding neighborhood, difference and dialogue. Steve Sabella, the son of Jerusalem will soon exit with his city to exile. |
2006 |
RADIO FEATURE
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2005 |
Steve Sabella Blurring the Lines Why is this interesting? Because Steve, a professional photographer who works for the various United Nations agencies in the territories, visited Gaza a few weeks ago together with an Australian woman journalist who works with him in order to prepare a report for an official UN magazine under the heading "A Look at Gaza." As they were passing near the Gaza port, they were halted by a group of young armed men. They were abducted and taken to a house down the road beyond the Shati refugee camp.
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| 2004 |
TV DOCUMENTARY More info on the Identity Project - click here |
| 1998 |
TV DOCUMENTARY More info on the Search Project - click here |
