Re-constructing Dasein: The Works of Steve Sabella
By Charlotte Bank
Institute for Middle East Understanding
March 28, 2016
But even before physically leaving Jerusalem, his fellow Jerusalemite and artist, Kamal Boullata, saw traces of the anxiety of exile in Sabella’s work. The images in the series Identity (2002) which inspired Boullata’s remarks are taken in and around Jerusalem; however, they never show us the city as such, but rather fragments of the sky, rocks, fields and other open spaces. In this city, where space is so contested and every inch laden with symbolism, Sabella has sought out his own vision of his city, at once seeking an escape and a coming back, piecing together those fragments that offer a space to breathe, far from the confinements of man-made walls.
Steve Sabella – Photography 1997-2014
By Hubertus Von Amelunxen
2014
Between 1997 and 2003 Sabella photographed three series, Search (1997), Identity (2002), and End of Days (2003): from the alienated impression of black-and-white nature, the walling in of things in Search, to the colorful expanses of the landscape, the deserts, cliffs, and furrowed fields in Identity and to the opening to abstraction initiated through a reversal of the light in End of Days. “To be a work means to set up a world,” Heidegger writes, and this building and unbuilding accompany Sabella’s work.
Exodus and Back
Canvas
By Myrna Ayad Canvas
In 2002, Sabella presented his Identity series on landscapes to the Qattan foundation’s young artist award, and won. One of the judges, Kamal Boullata (Canvas 4.3), interrogated Sabella’s supposed illustration of Jerusalem with no evidence of the city.“ I simply replied,‘do I have to photograph Jerusalem to talk about her?’ and suddenly Kamal beamed and said, ‘Bravo! That’s exactly what i want to hear!” laughs Sabella. Having been given such an accolade, but more importantly, being ‘seen’ by a fellow Palestinian artist, gave Sabella the impetus to question further.
Steve Sabella – I am From Jerusalem
Exhibition Catalogue – The Empty Quarter Gallery, Dubai
By Christa Paula
It has been noted that, in contrast to the older generation of Palestinian artists, the young contemporaries have opted to avoid the pitfalls of overtly political image production. Sabella’s first three series (Search 1997, Identity 2002, End of Days 2003) do not show Jerusalem. Instead they steer the viewer into depopulated landscapes beyond its city walls, offering glimpses of harsh beauty and superficially integrated alien objects. Light, in different spectra, is significant and is utilized to create an imaginary reality, a promise of relief in a world beyond the visible.
Steve Sabella – The Journey of Artistic Interrogation and Introspection
By Yasmin El Rashidi
Contemporary Practices Journal
Volume VI, 2010
The result of being born into a culture with this identity that was formed with perhaps the malfunction of creating difference rather than sameness, was the foundation for a mind and voice that had scope to sculpt itself even further in its deviation from the norm. “Monks go out into the desert, in isolation, to lose their identity,” Sabella says. “I decided to lose mine, and become a stranger only to myself.” … With each of Sabella’s projects came an exploration of one component of a deconstructed self-in- reconstruction. In his earlier series of works, Search (1997), Identity (2002), End of Days (2003) we see a younger artist hit hard by a reality of existential displacement, who appropriately, begins to search for other worlds, other realities, other vignettes of existence that may help, ultimately, with the construction for himself of something new. Exploring elements, landscapes, horizons, and fragmented details of tangible existence, Sabella sought to transcend what had been turned through the media into the visual myth he was meant to call home.
Steve Sabella
Contemporary Practices
By Martina Corgnati
Journal, VI, 2010
Sabella says: “Ironically, my first artwork, which was called Search, was consciously shifting away from all labels and categorizations. It was questioning the loss of identity. In this new project, ironically, it emphasizes identity but does so in a critical and provocative way.” His latest project called Settlement – Six Israelis & One Palestinian. The title itself is problematic, and the problem grows when the viewer finds himself in the middle of a narrow gap between two walls, surrounded by the image of two concrete walls, and in front of them the life size pictures of six men (on one side) and another (on the other side), all wearing just underpants.
Art Under Siege
Jerusalem in the Heart
Jerusalem Quarterly File, Issue 20
By Kamal Boullata
2004
The city considered a bridge between heaven and earth may be absent in Sabella’s photographs, but everything in these frames indicates the manner by which this native photographer has rebuilt his own Jerusalem. Not unlike the photographs of Ra’ad, which to an outsider may have resembled those of ethnically-oriented photographers of his time, Sabella’s crisp work of sky and rocks resembles work found among professional photographers anywhere else on the globe. And yet, it is in Sabella’s conscious avoidance of photographing Jerusalem that the visual artist has managed to recreate the universality of a place with which he identifies. In that respect, his search for his true self may be likened to those monks who, drawn by Jerusalem, came from distant lands only to spend the rest of their lives in bare and desolate landscapes. Only there could Sabella find a Jerusalem where he might breathe fresh air.