Marie Martinez and Dr. Mazen Asfour on "Doors And Windows" (June 2000)

Although there is nothing political in her paintings, she defends and asserts, with a great deal of convinction, her roots and origins, and also her sense of belonging. With the vigour, tenacity and sincerity that characterise her work, she bears witness, making people aware of, and encouraging them to share in, the deep visceral attachment which ties her to a people who have been forced by the ups and downs of History to survive in suffering, poverty, destitution and exile.

“Doors and windows” does not represent a neutral choice of symbols. Her paintings are really open books: they are to be read and understood.

Consciously or unconsciously, Ghada crystallises and enumerates within her work the entire symbolic baggage of the people of Palestine – its strength, long-lastingness, authenticity and inescapable reality. They are all there, all subtly suggested. Everything from the richness of the fabrics or the patterns of the embroideries, to the vital part played in the collective unconsciousness by the landscapes of the ancestral land and the Mediterranean coastline. Lightly, delicately and in a style which is all her own, she translates, and imposes through the furtive nature of her forms and lines, which are more or less forcefully drawn, more or less clearly traced out with brush, pencil or pastels, the force, the presence and the significance of blues, greens and light, in the reality of the Palestinian soul. Over and above all this, Ghada’s work exudes the joy of painting. Beyond the image, reality separates itself bit by bit from the representation of reality. It is a question of painting. There is a rhythm which is rigorous. The work emerges from its space, is at one with the light emanating from its colour. The gaze is appeased and pleasure is now present. This is a body of work which is still evolving and which must be discovered as it changes.

Marie Martinez

لا ترسم الفنانة غادة دحدله ما ترى بل ترسم ما تفكر أو بالأحرى كيف تفكر مع أنها تحاكي موضوع ضمن علاقات ذهنية باطنية اختزنت في أعمالها و انعكست مرئيا على الحوار المختزل بين الكتلة و الفراغ من ناحية, و حوارات بصرية أخرى مساندة مثل الذبذبات البصرية و تكراراتها المتمثلة باشرات تقنية, إضافة إلى التقنية الملمسية و غنائياتها.

تسهم كل هذه المفردات التشكيلية بصورتها العامة في تكيف لوحة الترابط العضوي للطبقات البصرية المتداخلة. و من هنا فإن المتلقي للوحات غادة مدعو للاستقطاب في كيفية الرؤية و الياتها و الإبتعاد ما أمكن عن التفسير الرمزي المباشر.

المحتوى في خطاب غادة الفني يبقى رغم ذلك انسانيا ليس بتمثيله بشكل صوري مباشر بل من خلال طاقة الفراغ, و حركته تنبض و المادة المختزلة فيه, فيصبح حضور الإنسان هو حضور الكتلة و الفراغ و تداخلاتها.

د. مازن عصفور