“Time has always been my greatest challenge...wearing a few hats, being an architect and image maker in the bustling city that is Cairo, leaves you with the scarcity of time. - Suddenly, globally and personally time is in abundance. I felt liberated within the sanctuary that is home and my adjacent space / studio.

Working in the light / shade of this newly acquired and uninterrupted time on both a video collaboration with Tunisian artist Galia Benali, living in Belgium via facetime, participating in a few charity exhibitions online as well as printing (remotely) a series assigned for a tv production all carried a new sense of value and mark of the times.

Also, notable is the enhanced sense of dialogue sparked from the solidarity of such interconnected times. - Live interviews, open libraries, recommendations where all boundaries were broken and humanity prevailing will remain a memory I will happily keep after all this is past us.

Choice always exists.”

“It seems as if life went on hold those past few weeks – for everyone. I am always straddling two cultures and identities, as a Lebanese/Palestinian and as an American. It feels as if the news is always dividing us as “them v/s us”, and now here we are a “we”: all in this together, in the same boat, with life at a standstill and reduced to the confinement of home. This virus is such an equalizer, making us all re-evaluate our shared humanity, our fragility, and our priorities.

Isolation and confinement offered me the gift of time at home with my family, and in the studio with my work. I had almost forgotten how precious both are. With time and space to re-evaluate what matters, I reached out to my friends and started visiting them and making their portraits through the window. A new project about “connecting across barriers” emerged. It humbled me how many people were willing to be part of this, but also how important the human interaction we often took for granted, is. Despite the fact that we only communicated across a physical barrier, we really and truly made a connection.

When life goes back to normal, I hope we keep that empathy, kindness, interconnectivity alive in us.”

“The “Rock Series” was inspired by the October 2019 uprising in Lebanon. The rocks in Lebanon age back millions of years and possess a hidden power – they have withstood storms, wars, and regional conflicts. They whisper their secrets to me and evoke feelings of humanity’s resilience. The progress of the monumental paintings which coincides with the COVID-19 lockdown, instill a reminder that just as the rocks endured and prevailed, so shall we.”

وباء الكورونا ابقى الملايين حول العالم في منازلهم وكذلك هنا في فلسطين. الطقس الربيعي الدافئ يدفعني للعمل في الحديقة لتشذيب الأشجار وإزالة الأعشاب وهي مهام تبقيني مشغولا ونشيطا. ولحسن حظي ان مرسمي يقع في الطابق السفلي من المنزل فأقضي فيه الكثير من الوقت. أنتج هذه الأيام أعمالا فنية جديدة تتميز بالازدحام في العناصر وأنفذها بألوان قوية تعبر عن حالة القلق التي تنتابني.

نبيل عناني

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“The Coronavirus pandemic kept millions around the world in their homes, the same here in Palestine. The warm spring weather entices me to work in the garden pruning trees and removing weeds, tasks that keep me busy and active. Fortunately, my studio is located in the basement of the house, where I spend a long time. I am working on new artworks that are busy with elements and executed in bold colors, which express my state of anxiety.”

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“When quarantine started I was feeling uninspired. After a few weeks in I felt cooped up and wanted to make something as an outlet for my feelings. I started working on a Q-Diary, or, Quarantine Diary. My method is to document every day of the week with an image and a short written fragment about how I was feeling that day. It’s a form of proof that I was here during the quarantine, living it day by day, and waiting for the time to pass, and for things to go back to normal.”

“My work this past month has centered around what I enjoy doing most; experimenting with colors and strokes.

Quarantine has forced us to not only adapt, but to rethink the way we work.

By bringing about small changes in the way I paint, I feel my work has evolved as well.

Using my spare bedroom as a makeshift studio has been interesting to say the least, however, this also means that getting there is now less of a hassle!

The lack of space and limited access to supplies have helped me push my own boundaries. “

“The quote that best describes how I feel about the quarantine “For those who are on the spiritual path, being alone , keeping a distance from people, and being silent are not issues.. they are opportunities” by Sadhguru.

These days, as our freedom shrinks , we are forced to move inwards to the vast inner space of thoughts and imagination.

People isolate because they have to, while artists isolate because they want to. That is the difference between isolation due to corona versus the usual self imposed isolation of the artist.”

“During the quarantine period, as a contemporary artist, I am looking for ways that allow me to collaborate with other artists. Because I don't want quarantine to become a solitary prison for me. Being in a new era requires new rules. II think this method can be done even among artists who have never seen each other. It is enough to choose a common theme or motif, and then slowly two or more artists who are going to work together will provide the independent pieces. At this stage, perhaps an artist or curator can decide how these pieces can be put together to become a single work. Or each of the group's artists will have the opportunity to put the pieces of the puzzle together as they like. In this second method, what remains is several works with the same theme with different forms and even different approaches instead of a single work.”

“Since lockdown, I have been facing those beloved friends: brush, ink and paper, but nothing, I simply can't work.”

“I’m recovering from covid-19 personally and so the work I’m making these days has been about the virus and love the need for people to be together.

Since my work is based in futurism, I imagine a future world where Ishq (‘love’) wins.”

“Rise up with the sun, Home, Studio, Home, Studio, Garden, Birds, Butterflies, studio, clap at 7pm, Dream when the moon is up.”

"In the first days I was very sad and tired and could not do anything. So I tried to forget. I started copying the works of masters that I had seen in museums and taken photographs of. I like this process, I detach myself and it is very gratifying. Gradually and consciously I decided to get back on track and to make decisions and ascertain my will. Now I have started a new series, where my ideal world is taking shape; wishes and regrets."

“The confinement brought me back to my workshop in my village in Byblos after several years of work in my workshop in Beirut. I went back to the Earth, to the herbs and to the anemones ... To recover my memories, my work and the strip of my life. As if the pandemic carried a message: come back to yourself, to nature and to humility, because your glories, as big as they are, are nothing but delusions.”

“Sculpture is an artistic practice that basically revolves around the quest for the essence throught the removal of the superfluous.

The lockdown has become an effective excercise in transferring this practice onto daily life. Weeks of isolation have enabled me to determine what is essential and what is superfluous. The quarantine has proven that many of the things that we regarded as necessary are not that urgent after all. My hope is that these new insights will motivate us to develop a more thoughful and conscious way of living.

Being confronted with a humanitarian crisis and the fear surronding it, also made me reflect on the role of art.

Most artists I know have enjoyed and are enjoying the lockdown because it enables them to fully focus on their practice without the harrasment of daily life. Are we that disengaged from society? What is the purpose of our seemingly useless and detached practice? How can art truly bring value to society and not be just a commodity for the elite?

I am currently pondering on these questions in an attempt to rethink my practice.”

“It’s definitely another kind of confinement that which we are having in Lebanon. We are seeing the decline of The state on all levels, and we can feel that quarantine and the current political situation are very much inter-related; one is serving the other in a way to keep any uprising protests from happening.

Meanwhile as an artist living in such challenging political conditions, the daily stress of our environment is definitely affecting me more directly than the confinement due to the virus. Low self confidence mixed with strong emotions and inspirations is how I am feeling, I search for calm spaces and seek the right time that helps me create in the middle of these stormy days ; some days are easier than others.

I can see my recent work is quite a mixture of my state of being: anger, frustration and a lot of reflection.

It’s true that we don’t have the luxury of the calm that some artists in other cities are experiencing, nevertheless, I can’t help but being positive because at the end for me everything will have a meaning for sure.”