Space Exodus

Subverting images of being Palestinian ... a still from A Space Exodus by Larissa Sansour.

Palestinian people would appear not to have much to laugh about, let alone crack a smile.

Yet an upcoming exhibition of Palestinian artists shows that humour can be found even among the turmoil and tragedy of the Middle East conflict.

Images of an astronaut planting the Palestinian flag on the moon and Planet of the Arabs, a video montage of Muslim stereotypes in Hollywood cinema, are among the artworks in Beyond the Last Sky, which opens at the Australian Centre for Photography in Paddington on September 1.

Mona Lisa

Mona Lisa by Raeda Saadeh.

It is the first exhibition in Australia to solely feature the works of contemporary Palestinian artists.

 

The show's curator, Chrisoula Lionis, said the photos and videos used humour to depict various aspects of the artists' lives but did not focus just on politics.

''Humour is often used by artists to open up new ways of approaching issues,'' she said.

Ms Lionis said depictions of Palestinians were dominated by documentary styles of film and photography, which gave a one-dimensional view of their lives as humourless, riven with conflict and highly political.

''It's almost a dehumanising thing,'' said Ms Lionis, who is writing a PhD thesis on humour in Palestinian art and film at the National Institute for Experimental Arts at the University of NSW's College of Fine Arts.

''Sharing laughter gives you an instant form of connection â€Ķ When you remove humour from a person or people, you make that instant relationship impossible to develop.''

Ms Lionis said humour had become increasingly prevalent in Palestinian art in the past 10 years, which she traced to disillusionment with the failure of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

She was adamant that the exhibition was not anti-Israeli.

''Of course, it's inevitable that the concerns surrounding these artists are picked up in their work,'' Ms Lionis said.

One of the artists, Khaled Hourani, has been invited to speak at a symposium inspired by the exhibition at the University of NSW on September 8.

But Ms Lionis said the artist's Palestinian passport had made it difficult for him to obtain a visa.

''The delay in his visa is a reflection of the trouble of travelling in and out of the territories,'' she said.