The Plain Dealer | Steven Litt  |  August 21, 2017

"On Exile" video at Spaces reveals hopes, dreams of refugees (photos)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - The middle-aged woman wearing a hijab is shy at first in front of the camera.

It's unclear whether she's standoffish because of her religion, her origins as a native of Syria, or because she feels uncomfortable speaking after the president of the United States sought to ban on immigration by people like herself.

"I'm going to look ugly," says the woman, whose name is Sahar Daghstani. "I don't have a very photogenic face to be honest, I know that from all my pictures."

Her interviewers, hidden off camera, assure her that she is wrong. And then they record a prolonged, intimate close-up of Daghstani's face that leaves a viewer impressed with her humanity and wisdom, even before she resumes speaking.

So begin the quiet opening moments of "On Exile," a 70-minute "video essay" on Cleveland refugees from Syria, Sudan, Somalia and Iraq by contemporary artist Jose Carlos Teixeira that anchors the new suite of exhibitions at Spaces gallery that opened Friday.

The video is a remarkably beautiful document that peels away layers of cliche and stereotypes to reveal the radiant humanity of Teixeira's subjects, who come from countries torn by civil war or the fight against ISIS, the Islamic State.

The video offers a glimpse of the struggles of refugees to adapt to life in America under a president whose statements on Muslims and refugees sound bigoted to many Americans.

"The problem here is the propaganda against Muslims," one of Teixeira's interviewees says. "His [Trump's] speeches are an incitement to racism."

Teixeira's subjects also speak of the traumatic events that propelled them to resettle in Cleveland, their homesickness for their countries of origin, their hopes for the future and their struggle to adapt to their new lives.

Interspersed among the images and words of the refugees, half of whom speak in Arabic with subtitles, are prolonged shots of Lake Erie that imbue the video with a sense of place and a mood of tranquil acceptance.

A native of Porto, Portugal, born in 1977, Teixeira is an assistant professor in the master-of-fine-arts program at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Beyond journalism

His video seeks to present the Cleveland refugees not in a journalistic context, but in one that's poetic or philosophical.

Contrary to standard journalistic practice, the video does not provide the names of Teixeira's subjects; you learn those only in the credits at the end of the screening. A gallery handout also names the speakers in the order they appear in the video.

The de-emphasis of names, along with Teixeira's practice of focusing tightly on his speakers' hands and faces, underscores the universality of their fears and dreams in a way that using their names might not have.

The languid pace of the video, which gives equal weight to pauses and silences, also gives weight to the emotions of Teixeira's subjects, even as some occasionally struggle to express themselves in English.

The effect of Teixeira's techniques - including the impressively high production value of the video - is to reduce the otherness and distance a viewer might otherwise feel.

Combatting otherness

When Iraqi refugee Israa Al-Obaidi, describes how her husband died when a Katyusha rocket hit her home, you feel intense pain that renders irrelevant the specifics of where and when and how, which are not explained and don't need to be.

All you know is that you are facing another human being who in the instant of her loss, said she felt "a vast emptiness."

Somali refugee Hawo Abdi speaks of her discomfort when people try to peg her as African or Indian because she is brown-skinned and wears a hijab.

"I am from Somalia," she said. "I am Somali-American. That's how I say it, but it's a struggle."

It's a mark of the power of Teixeira's project that as you watch it, you come to feel that his interviewees are not "they," but very much a part of this community, which is richer for having them here.

That's a fine achievement, and it makes Teixeira's powerful video a poignant and incredibly timely tribute to people dislodged by global violence, and who now have a toehold on a better life in the United States.

Click here for the original artcle.

Review
What's up: "On Exile," 70-minute video by Jose Carlos Teixeira, with cinematography is by Nicholas Wynia, on Cleveland refugees from Syria, Sudan, Somalia and Iraq. Also on view: "URe:AD T.V.," an installation on the black diaspora by artists Shani Peters and Sharita Towne.

Venue: Spaces gallery

Where: 2900 Detroit Rd., Cleveland.

When: Through Friday, Oct. 13.

Admission: Free. Call 216-621-2314 or go to spacesgallery.org.

Original Article