The work of the artist Walid Raad has a curious archival quality about it. He is documenting what he finds but adding a personal take on these findings, his work mainly concerns the various wars that have taken place in Lebanon, however he also looks into a variety of traumatic human historical events. However the graphic way of presenting these findings leaves ones guessing and asking many questions. I found a series of pieces he produced particularly haunting.
These were a series of varying blue shaded canvases- no texture, just what seemed to be large blue negatives of photographs yet to be developed. These prints were discovered in the rubble after a bombing in Beirut. They were then developed to see if anything existed on them. All that were found were small black and white portraits of men and women either on their own or in groups. One small picture (A6) per canvas (A0). After researching into the people in the photographs Raad found out they were men and women who had been lost at sea during the late 70's and early 80's.
I find it very difficult to describe how and what it is about this layering and progression of memory, loss, discovery makes me feel, but it's overwhelmingly powerful. An interesting way of representing and documenting history. Perhaps the way they are presented makes them so powerful, or maybe its just the back story which helps achieve this.
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