The Markaz Review published this profile by Malu Halasa on 3 May 2024, describing the personal and artistic aftermath for Palestinian artist Hazem Harb following his father's detention and alleged torture by Israeli forces in Gaza. The piece moves between biography and studio practice, taking its title, "Back to Zero," from the artist's own description of his state of mind that spring.
It focuses on two bodies of work made in direct response to that period: twenty-two framed pieces using strips of white gauze arranged by hand on brown cardboard, which Harb told Halasa he intends to keep rather than sell, and the charcoal drawings later shown as Dystopia Is Not a Noun, which he described as coming "from the gut" and demanding the physical, bodily engagement that brushwork does not. The article also places these against earlier collage-based series, including The Motherland (2022), Hollyland (2021) and The Family Tree (2021), built from archival documents, maps and family photographs.
The Markaz Review piece traces how Hazem Harb's practice shifted, within a few months, from the precise, layered collage he is best known for towards the more direct, handmade gauze and charcoal works of this period. Tabari Artspace's presentation of Dystopia Is Not a Noun remains the clearest public record of that shift for visitors following the artist's recent trajectory.
