Arafat

Stitched C-print 100 x 150cm

Arafat (2009) is part of Berend Strik's powerful Thixotropy  series, created during his travels through East Jerusalem and the West Bank.  The work depicts a political figure yet transforms him through Strik's  signature stitching technique into something more intimate and ambiguous.

As Galerie Fons Welters describes: "Berend Strik appropriates images,  ranging from photographs he has made himself or found in family albums to  pages torn from magazines. He adds delicate pieces of material and embroidery  to the existing image as part of his search for meaning. While the original  images are characterised by a certain lack, an indefinite quality, the  photographs that have been elaborated in this way are perfected. A context is  created and the fruits of the imagination are made tangible."

Part of a quartet including Israel House, Palestinian House,  and Ramallah, the work explores the Israeli-Palestinian conflict  through intimate, domestic imagery rather than political spectacle. The  direct title reference makes the political dimension explicit, yet Strik's  textile interventions — adding fabric layers, creating tactile surfaces —  transform the documentary image into something more layered and ambiguous.

Strik's approach creates room for associations and memories in the space  between the photograph and his elaborations. The exhibition catalogue,  published by Valiz with support from Fonds BKVB, remains a key document of  this body of work.

Private collection

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