ziggy stuff

.ziggy stuff

artist statment

I was born in war.

Everything around me now is war.

War has always been.

I cannot remember a time when there was no war.

If it wasn't on TV, it was in my soul. It was in my ears on Sunday nights when we used to call Teta in Beirut... across the Sahara, my ears picked up the crackling of the telephone line, the apprehension in the voices, the sporadic interruptions of white noise. It was under my skin as I watched hungry African eyes stare at me in mystification as I rode to school in my air-conditioned car. It was in my tears, when I was rejected by the high school blond at the high school dance in the European country I was in. It was in my heart when I came to my native land and watched it repeat it's same mistakes, over and over again.

In the beginning I was creating so that people would remember. But now, I have to be honest with myself; I am caught up in existential unrest and I find myself creating these images and forms because I cannot physically do anything else. It is no longer about right and wrong. It is not an intellectual debate. It is a creative offering I make to help maintain balance and order in the world around me. Our beliefs create the reality we experience; and only one's own personal experience offers the ultimate criterion for truth. Because truth is beauty, every form of creative invention is evidence that a person is spiritually alive. It is a valid human experience; a true moment, a word, a sound, an act, a sculpture- all the process of being alive; all the affirmation of existence. All spiritual. All holy. Every act we do or word we utter, we are absolutely responsible for. We are absolutely responsible for being alive. We are absolutely responsible for our lives, because we just are. I am and I am grateful for, only being, a fragment in the cosmos of things... the great unbendable universe.

The deeper I look into myself, the more I find that I am connected to something much greater. And this comforts me... knowing that everything I feel or make is a catalyst in someone else's mind. And the more I let go to experience these beliefs, the closer I become to you. We are one, without being numerical.

By painting and sculpting these images, I am fighting for life. I am fighting for your life. I am fighting for my life.

brief bio:

Zena el Khalil, born 1976 in London, has lived in Nigeria, London, New York, and Beirut. Zena is an installation artist, a painter, and writer and holds a MFA degree from the School of Visual Arts in New York. Her artwork centers on issues of war, love, family and religion and is a direct reflection of the time and space she lives in. el Khalil has been involved in a love/hate relationship with Beirut for the past decade- clearly evident in her work.

el-Khalil is also the co-founder and director of xanadu* <xanaduart.com>, an art space/collective based in Beirut with a small extension in New York city, dedicated to promoting young and/or under-represented artists.

During the July ‘06 Israeli invasion on Lebanon, el Khalil’s blog, <beirutupdate.blogspot.com>, received international acclaim and was highly publicized on news portals such as CNN and the BBC. Excerpts were published in papers, including The Guardian and Der Spiegel Online

Zena has exhibited her artwork internationally, working out of her studio overlooking the Mediterranean Sea in Beirut. On occasion her Jack Russell Terrier, Tampopo, has been known to accompany her to the studio. She has recently published her first book, a memoir, entitled "Beirut, I Love You."