Literature

In his series of hyper-realistic paintings titled Made in China, Halak represents religious objects packed in cardboard boxes against the background of crumpled plastic packing, bringing detailed religious mementos to the foreground. The title of the series seems to suggest the foreign origin of the objects, notwithstanding their relevance to the local landscape in accordance with the Biblical narrative. This reflects a pervasive theme in Halak’s work: the question of identity and belonging. Indeed, at the macro level, the works appear to deal with the interconnected themes of consumerism, memory, religion, and representation, reflecting the artist’s criticism of broad topics such as the corruption of spiritual essence, the commercialization of spirituality, and the outsourcing of traditional local production of souvenirs. Beyond the surface, the paintings reveal personal afflictions and inquiries that Halak has been tackling throughout his career as an artist. Thus, while the works can speak to a broad public, awareness of Halak’s biography adds nuance to the paintings and reveals the roots of his chosen themes in his biography and formal training. Halak is a Christian Palestinian; he was raised in Fassuta—a Catholic village on the Lebanese border—attended a school run by nuns, and currently resides in the mixed Arab-Jewish city of Haifa. The links between the personal and the universal and the inevitable incorporation of identity politics into Halak’s work are realized in Made in China.