Literature

Chafa Ghaddar draws inspiration from the historical fresco technique originating from the pre-Renaissance, a method of mural painting in which freshly laid lime plaster is applied in segments, embedding paint in its moist surface until it dries.

Stemming from the idea of giornata (“a day's work” in Italian), Chafa Ghaddar’s masterful engagement with the fresco technique presents the idea of the fragment as an autonomous entity. The artist challenges the traditional notions of fragments as remnants of ruins or part of a process, encouraging viewers to consider the fragment in its entirety. Each artwork is constructed based on different fragments, aiming to convey the idea of pars pro toto, meaning that a part of something is taken as representative of the whole.

In this wake, the artist addresses the panoramic landscape as something that never really starts and that remains incomplete. Here, the landscape is referred to as a body, a land, a poem, or a suggestion, whilst the reference to the sun is a constant, an anchor point, and an emotion.

Your sun that kept setting reflects Ghaddar’s fascination with sunrises and sunsets, evoked through the recurring presence of peach colours and light hues in her work. The artist uses the sun as a metaphor for light, fleeting moments, and emotions captured and encapsulated in tangible forms by employing mediums such as limestone, acrylic and oil paint to preserve and crystallise these emotions.

The sunset, in particular, evokes a complex emotional response - a blend of grief for what is ending and anticipation for what is to come. Through the phrase "it kept setting," Chafa Ghaddar seeks to extend this ephemeral moment, creating a sense of elasticity that defies finality and invites contemplation within the liminal space between beginnings and endings.