This body of work is centered around the divisive social separations of economics. Rad Hourani examines the social, national, and topographical relationships in our everyday environments. By exploring the notion of land as a place of neutrality, Rad Hourani suggests an alternative understanding of social conceptions of identity to bring to light the fictitious mental constructions of symbolic semiotics that we function with and the historical structures of confined identity. Moreover, this exposes the impacts of our mental and physical divisions, created by authorized hierarchies for economic gain.

Thematically, the depictions are initiated through the hybridization of sculpture and painting. Rad Hourani interrogates the philosophical potency of what it is to be human in the physical world. He considers how one identifies the self with objects such as flags, doors, money, maps, stamps, and signs. We identify with the resonance of names, languages, and anthems, along with social identifiers such as gender, skin color, sexual orientation, and body forms. Commemorating the attachment of identity to notions of age, theology, borders, and social classes further encourages participation in competition. Success is then further measured in the identity ties to belief systems of status, nationality, religion, politics, and other forms of indoctrination.

The use of these normalized labels procures connotations of selfhood since childhood, while only existing with value in non-physical and sensorial realms. These subconscious illusions create stereotypes, misogyny, inequality, prejudice, and supremacy, from which derogatory terms are born. Rad Hourani observes how humanity is separated by fragmentation of various signifiers, producing mental limitations, and wishes to return to our unconditioned roots as an entity.

© 2015 RAD HOURANI

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