Hope in an Age of Dystopia

Hope in an Age of Dystopia brings together 66 recent acquisitions by regional artists whose works explore the state of our current world. 

Across this collection, the pieces speak to each other as they tread the fine line between despair and hope. Many of the artworks are vibrant in their form yet often bleak in their content. Some works critique our current social condition with sharp wit, while others playfully invite us to join in on the joke. Yet, they all engage with a dystopian reality characterized by our inability to escape the confines of various systems of control. However, as is common within the dystopian genre, the ultimate motive is not to despair, but to imagine different paths for a better future.

Artworks include:

Selim Mawad’s (Lebanon) satire works, critical commentaries of Lebanese politics and people, exploring issues such as the country’s brain drain or the tragic Beirut explosion.

Amer Shomali’s (Palestine) Broken Weddings, a reconstruction of traditional patterns of Palestinian brides’ wedding dresses (thobe) left behind during the 1948 Nakba.  

Hady Sy’s (Lebanon) The Zeros, replaces George Washington’s image in the one-dollar bill with an illustration of 9th-century polymath Al Khawarsimi, the Father of Algebra.

Aliaa Elgready’s (Egypt) work reconsiders our relationship to the natural world, asking us to see it as a complete entity worthy of understanding beyond our need to exploit it. 

Johanne Allard’s (Lebanon/Canada) works from the series A Feast in the Ruins, embroidered pieces pointing at systematic attacks to the Levant and Arab region.