Exhibition

Justine Youssef: All Blessings, All Curses

<h1><em>Justine Youssef: All Blessings, All Curses</em></h1>

When

02 November 2018 -
16 December 2018

Location

4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art

181-187 Hay St, Haymarket

All Blessings, All Curses presents recent and newly commissioned works by Sydney-based artist, Justine Youssef. Born in the heart of Western Sydney, Youssef’s practice negates the stifling white heat of global xenophobia with deeply personal and universal ruminations that layer the smell, sights and textures of her ancestral homeland, Lebanon.

The strength of Justine Youssef’s practice lies in the poetics of her storytelling and observations: a teacher blackens Arabic script, fearing that it contains a religious hate message; a smoke detector deafeningly sounds as a mother burns bakhoor to rid the house of the evil eye; the looks of confusion two girls receive as they scrub clean a Persian rug in their driveway. These scenes represent the lived experience of the artist who transforms everyday occurrences into visual metaphors.

Justine Youssef’s intuitive methodology draws upon this archive of personal memories as a departure point for All blessing, all curses. Employing sculpture, video, installation and text, Youssef examines the difficult experiences of misunderstanding with the grand subjects of faith, love, family and home. In doing so, she creates immersive experiences that are both epic and intimate – whispering invocations of promise, comfort and resistance.

View the Justine Youssef: All Blessings, All Curses roomsheet here.

A glass facade in a red brick building, with the decal words 'Justine Youssef, All Blessings, All Curses, 2 Nov - 16 Dec' stuck on the glass.
A tiny video screen in a white gallery wall, showing a spoon with burning incense.
A mound of sandstone bricks on a hardwood floor.
A mound of sandstone bricks on a hardwood floor.
An LED video screen stood up against a mound of sandstone bricks in a light-flooded gallery space.
An LED video screen showing hands waving a spoon over a pot, with the subtitles 'We need to sit down, and talk,'. The screen leans against a structure of sandstone bricks.
An LED video screen showing a tanned brown hand with a gold ring and an index finger stuck into a metal bowl with coriander. The subtitle reads, 'otherwise we'd be held up in Trablous.'
Three photographic prints showing a few femme-presenting figures dressed in muted colours with their hair tied back with bandanas, kneeling on and scrubbing a teal green Persian rug.
Two teal green Persian rugs laid on a hardwood floor with two LED video screens stood on top, showing the same displayed rugs in other settings.
Two LED video screens on a teal green Persian rug. The screens show a series of Persian rugs laid out in other concreted spaces.
Two green-toned Persian rugs in a light-flooded gallery space, with two LED screens stood on top showing a woman legs-down cleaning a floor.
A teal green Persian rug with an LED screen on top showing a series of folded Persian rugs in a tiled floor in a concrete building.
A naturally lit window sill with three groups of plates stacked in the sun.
Close-up of black glazed clay bowls and brass bowls.
A wall constructed from sandstone brick with a LED video screen showing a close-up of one half of a face with black kohl painted over a closed eyelid.
A wall constructed from sandstone brick with a LED video screen showing two tanned hands tipping a clay bowl over onto the ground.
An LED video screen showing three brass bowls and a yellow tin can on a natural red rock shelf.
Two LED video screens showing a femme-presenting woman with long brown hair in a desert landscape leaning over a set of brass bowls and a yellow tin can.
Two LED video screens against a small sandstone brick wall, showing a video of granite rocks in brown water.
A small brick sandstone wall, several LED TV screens and two teal green Persian rugs arranged in a white gallery space.
A TV screen showing hands moving over a platter with brass bowls.
Close-up of two adjoining knee-height walls built from sandstone brick, with two screens resting against their interior. Behind these walls are two deep green Persian rugs with LCD screens set up on top.
Eight glass bottles filled with different coloured liquids, arranged on a hardwood gallery floor.
A two ring gas burner, gas cylinder, aluminium pot on a pavers floor, next to two glass bottles filled with brownish liquids. On the white wall behind are two photographs.
A photograph of a female-presenting figure in a long white dress, seated with her hands working over an aluminium pot against an industrial factory backdrop. She appears to work near a production line and various stacks of cardboard boxes, while plant cuttings surround her on a wet floor.
Light coming through a gallery window onto eight glass bottles filled with different liquids, arranged next to an aluminium pot, a two ring gas burner and a gas cylinder on a pavers floor.
Light coming through a gallery window onto eight glass bottles filled with different liquids, arranged next to an aluminium pot, a two ring gas burner and a gas cylinder on a pavers floor. A photograph is mounted on the white wall behind this installation.
Light coming through a gallery window onto eight glass bottles filled with different liquids, arranged next to an aluminium pot, a two ring gas burner and a gas cylinder on a pavers floor.
A photograph of a snake on white fabric, with its head near a gold necklace with a small evil eye amulet. Underneath this photo is a print of a female-presenting figure in a long red and black striped dress with extremely long black sleeves that seem a few metres long. She stands in the desert with her left arm extended above her head and her right arm extended outwards, so the sleeves blow outwards with the wind.
A photograph of a snake on white fabric, with its head near a gold necklace with a small evil eye amulet. Underneath this photo is a print of a female-presenting figure in a long red and black striped dress with extremely long black sleeves that seem a few metres long. She stands in the desert with her left arm extended above her head and her right arm extended outwards, so the sleeves blow outwards with the wind. Both photographs are mounted on a wall in front of a bigger gallery space with three green Persian rugs arranged on the floor with two LCD screens mounted on top.
  

Top image: Kohl_Still_Ali_Youssef-8-1024x576