TOW #19 - Mohammed Musallam 'The Great Illusion'

                Artist Mohammed Musallam recently set up his piece The Great Illusion in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at the Mattress Factory. Musallam currently resides in the Gaza Strip, where he is forced to carry around a passport as a result of the Oslo Peace Treaty. In his piece he attempts to express the torment he and all Palestinians in Gaza are forced to suffer through their everyday routines. The purpose of his piece is to remind people of the Palestinian people who are under siege and occupation, he tries to call upon the right of his people of an independent state that will give them their basic human right of free mobility.  The materials he uses; olive leaves, homemade olive oil, barbed wire, and passports help him to express this.

                The piece fills one room on the museum’s floor with olive leaves and barbed wire that is ensnaring pages from Gazan passports. All the passports are authentic and are used to symbolize him being prevent free mobility. The pages he uses are free from any travel stamps and are punctured on barbed wire to again reinforce the sense of entrapment. He punctures the passports to prove how worthless they are, under the Oslo Peace Treaty the passport is supposed to grant a citizen the freedom to travel but in reality is does the complete opposite. The olive leaves and olive oil are a symbol for Palestinian life, to represent that in the past these passports were not needed and everyone lived peacefully.

                Musallam achieves his purpose through his use of materials that help him to express his personal pain and humanitarian issues in a clear and intense manner.