Barzakh
19.11.2026 – 14.02.2027 | A Solo Show by Riyas Komu
Art is the ideal realm or frame to address and reflect on in-between-ness. Art helps us go beyond the rules of either/or, here/there, life/after life. It is through art that one can make sense of such a space of in-between-ness, transforming it into something imaginable, inhabitable and of course, a space of infinite justice.
The Arabic word ‘Barzakh’ aptly sums up the state, neither the life of this world nor the final afterlife, but a state where the soul waits for justice to emerge and rule the world. Art represents the state of Barzakh.
Barzakh is a fundamental structure of all existence. It is the space between your breaths, the gap between your thoughts. The threshold between sleep and waking. The moment between past and future. The dimension between body and soul. The thin veil between you and god.
Images of war and violence, strewn around dead bodies and rubble of habitats, people pleading for help and mourning the dead, have been running in a loop, confronting us with disturbing questions about life and death, action and thought, memory and dreams, oppression and resistance.
War spoils our dreams. What art does in such an undreamy time? Art, no way, seeks refuge in a familiar space of trust deficit, deterrence, banal laws and punitive justice. Instead, prefers to dwell in an uncomfortable space of in-betweenness, hoping that justice will eventually prevail.
These recent works were reflected upon historical, cultural, and artistic signifiers that have shaped my thought and practice. They are both a continuation of my past work and a rupture, a result of my attempt to problematise, from my location in the Global South, the corpus of images bequeathed as part of my institutional learning and the contradictions arising out of history (of people and art).
Words and images carry wounds of history; old meanings get discarded, and new languages emerge. The tropes of memory – of Art and Institutions – like the hand that reaches out and heals, the Mother and the Child, now become searing metaphors of untruth and betrayal.
We stand in solidarity with peace and freedom, and that is what this show is truly about. As a small gesture of love and solidarity, both Riyas Komu and gallerist Tasneem will contribute 10% of sales towards aid efforts for the people of Gaza.
On view at SAC Art Amsterdam from 19.11.2026 – 14.02.2027
Poster design by Rhea Susan John