2014-2016
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Loch Computer 2016 – in collaboration with Norman McBeath
Press Release: Robert Crawford.
Loch Computer – Over a two year period this network brought together a group of twenty short story writers, poets, artists, computer scientists and digital humanities specialist in six one day meetings to ponder the meaning of remoteness and connectedness in the digital era. The aim was to expose all participants to a wide range of different kinds of thinking on remoteness and connectedness, some of which might condition their future work.
Participants:
Meg Bateman, Alice Crawford, Robert Crawford, Alan Dearle, Meaghan Delahunt, Jennie Erdal, Jen Hadfield, Sara Lodge, Norman McBeath, Peter Mackay, Candia McWilliams, Victoria MacKenzie, Leena Nammari, Michael Nott, Helen Pain, Dave Robertson, Don Sannella, Ruth Thomas, Alice Thompson, Colin Waters.
Paint > Print > Paint – in collaboration with Louise Ritchie, Meffan 2016
Mixed exhibition combining collaborative work and individual pieces from both Louise Ritchie and Leena Nammari.
Unprinted is a dialogue or sequence of consequences formed through embedded paint and print disciplines that merge and inform the final outcome. The layering of the work through the hand of one artist sent to the hand of another and then back to repeat has allowed for each artist to create and respond then respond again until conclusion. (last four in the sequence of photos).
Various
Shroud for Unholy Rest
Shown at SSA 2018 at the RSA building. Cyanotype on cotton. A striking image of empty room, in Palestine, the holiest of holy places, with empty cola bottle that appears like a chalice. An overwhelming sense of loneliness and abandonment pervades the space.
How I Wish You Were Here
A stool found in most coffee shops in Palestine, which tend to be inhabited by mainly men, usually unemployed, idle, playing backgammon.
An empty stool, representing me missing my friend, who died too soon, too young, and is still missed.
Gazelle’s Horns
The name for this tiny delicate yet hardy spring flower, found in crevices, in between rocks, growing for a brief few weeks, before they wither from the sun.
Etchings and Screenprints
Golden Hills
8 piece photo etching of a landscape that is dear to me.
Hand painted with iridescent gold in the sky, giving it a glow when seen. Shown at the SSA annual exhibition 2014.
180cm x 20cm
Windows and Corridors
Two layered screen print of a house I stumble upon with my friend Samar. We snuck in, photographed and ran away quickly. Trying to document that which will disappear. The windows are typically Middle Eastern, high arches, barred, with thick wall that should withstand earthquakes, of all kinds, natural and human, and yet…
Door and Corridors
A motif I return to, openings and possibilities, etching and screenprint, multi layered, multi coloured, multi meanings.
Colours of Another Sky
A set of 5 etchings with screenprints.
These have been shown in multiple locations. Brastislava, Ramallah, Edinburgh. A set of images that I have revisited, and will me reimagining in the future.
All 30x30cm.
Society of Scottish Artists (SSA) & Gallery One, Ramallah
And the History Books Forgot About Us – House on the Hill
A series of prints with this title, taken inspiration from a Regina Spektor song, as Palestinians, our history is being deleted slowly and deliberately. Yet we have been the custodians on the land, and made our mark on it, indelibly.
And the History Books Forgot About Us – Alleyway
I look for the areas not frequented by tourists, areas that only the local see. I photograph what I see as interesting, and make something beautiful I feel from the mundane and the ordinary. This alley way is just a thoroughfare, a link between neighbourhoods.
And the History Books Forgot About Us – Steps
Just steps up to a house, a hidden courtyard, only those who know its there would know that it was there. The city has been inhabited for thousands of years, flagstones that have been worn by centuries of feet, going up and down these steps. They are worthy of being recorded, yet they history will not record them, they are the ordinary, the everyday, the looked past.
The Written Image – In collaboration with Robert Crawford
From press release
‘Edinburgh Printmakers and the Scottish Poetry Library partnered in mid-2013 to launch a project fostering collaborations between printmakers and poets. The results of these collaborations constitute Edinburgh Printmakers Winter exhibition entitled The Written Image, and demonstrate the rich variety and depth of creative stimulation engendered by cross-form exploration. Printmaking and poetry are both forms that use image as a means of conveying the artist’s ideas and intentions, and through these pairings we look at how image can be the vehicle that links and inspires artists across media.’
Thread
Robert Crawford for Leena Nammari
My faith
Hangs by a thread.
It always has.
No point
Spending long
Going over it
Worrying,
Will it snap?
Will it go?
Is it the wrong
Kind of faith
Better just take it
And sew.
Hanging Balcony, Jerusalem
Robert Crawford for Leena Nammari
Stand
In old age
On tired feet
Dizzy
With grieving,
In that tall
Filigree cage
Hung
On the wall
Above the busy
Unwavering street
And peer out
Through diesel stink
And heat
And the small
Blistered land,
Then hear the young
Call
Of a quavering voice
Prompt you to think
Day
After day
About making a choice
About leaving
About learning to stay
Other
PostPost
A project that drew together 11 Australian and 2 international printmakers, pairing an established and an emerging artist each from regional and metropolitan areas. The exhibition reflected and addressed the shift in communicative technologies from traditional post to email correspondence.
Exhibited at Umbrella Studio contemporary arts and at Impress Gallery Brisbane, Australia. In the collection of National Gallery of Australia.
Post Post: Palestine/ Falasteen
The images in the stamp collection are photographs of Olive stores, found in the Ramallah and Beit Jala hills in the West Bank.
These ancient structures are centuries old, and are still used today as stores for olive, figs and other fruit during harvest. They are used still due to the steepness of the hills.
The prices are old Palestinian currency, used during the British Mandate, now obsolete, with the creation of Israel and the occupation.
One day, when there is a Palestine, this currency may be used again.