Exhibition—
2024
Too Tough {pal abra}
While We Are WaitingUnfolding Projects
OVERVIEW:
While we are waiting is a collection of
writings from women in Afghanistan
throughout 2022 and the visual
responses from women artists in
Australia, in the form of artists’ books.
Each of the 21 artists’ books is placed
in a customised folder (Stonehenge
250gsm paper) together with
introduction and colophon folders, in
two archival solander boxes.
Project lead: Gali Weiss
Edition 1: Acquired by Monica Open
Edition 2: Acquired by The Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne
While we are waiting is a collection of
writings from women in Afghanistan
throughout 2022 and the visual
responses from women artists in
Australia, in the form of artists’ books.
Each of the 21 artists’ books is placed
in a customised folder (Stonehenge
250gsm paper) together with
introduction and colophon folders, in
two archival solander boxes.
Project lead: Gali Weiss
Edition 1: Acquired by Monica Open
Edition 2: Acquired by The Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne
ARTIST STATEMENT:
“A word is a shovel with wings”
—Cecilia Vicuña
“I am too tough for the pressure of the Taliban to destroy me”
—Khadija, 5th December 2021
Too Tough {pal abra} has been made in response to the close kinship of womens’ artistic struggle that exists across generations, political circumstances and time and place. The work responds to the simple words “too tough”, spoken by Khadija as part of her daily mantra of survival in the months after the Taliban took violent control of Kabul in August 2021. These words have been conceived of visually, in the style and function of what Chilean artist and activist Cecilia Vicuña calls her ‘palabrarmas’ (‘wordweapons’ or ‘wordarms’) with ‘pala’ being Spanish for ‘shovel’.
The script of both English and Dari translations have been arranged to echo Vicuna’s collage work pal abra of 1976, made against the backdrop of Chile’s military dictatorship. The visual motif of the shovel is shown with wing-like hands extending from its shaft, offering up the fruits of this mantra. On the cover are the words resist/resist/exist—a kind of self perpetuating logic in the form of a punctured (punctuated) concrete poem.
While the earth impregnated papers of the artist book extend a recent and ongoing material practice, it also speaks to the shovel’s connecting with the raw material of the earth—a common substrate of human and more-than-human articulations.
“A word is a shovel with wings”
—Cecilia Vicuña
“I am too tough for the pressure of the Taliban to destroy me”
—Khadija, 5th December 2021
Too Tough {pal abra} has been made in response to the close kinship of womens’ artistic struggle that exists across generations, political circumstances and time and place. The work responds to the simple words “too tough”, spoken by Khadija as part of her daily mantra of survival in the months after the Taliban took violent control of Kabul in August 2021. These words have been conceived of visually, in the style and function of what Chilean artist and activist Cecilia Vicuña calls her ‘palabrarmas’ (‘wordweapons’ or ‘wordarms’) with ‘pala’ being Spanish for ‘shovel’.
The script of both English and Dari translations have been arranged to echo Vicuna’s collage work pal abra of 1976, made against the backdrop of Chile’s military dictatorship. The visual motif of the shovel is shown with wing-like hands extending from its shaft, offering up the fruits of this mantra. On the cover are the words resist/resist/exist—a kind of self perpetuating logic in the form of a punctured (punctuated) concrete poem.
While the earth impregnated papers of the artist book extend a recent and ongoing material practice, it also speaks to the shovel’s connecting with the raw material of the earth—a common substrate of human and more-than-human articulations.
Too Tough {pal abra}, 2023-4
Earth impregnated and perforated papers, tailor’s chalk, watercolour and rice glue
42 x 30cm each
Photography by Karena Goldfinch, 2024