New article: Palestinian artist John Halaka interviewed

Electronic Intifada, 30th August 2013

“I’ve faced quite a few problems, resistance to my work. In the US, if an artist makes work that addresses the Palestinian situation — and my work is really about human rights — you face all kinds of obstacles and doors being closed in front of you. Even when invited, you can face attempts to censor and control your work.
I make work that I think is visually quite elegant and seductive in many ways, deliberately so, but the ideas within it disturb people who are not willing to have the issue of Palestine aired publicly. So I’ve been censored, I’ve had threats to close down or remove my work from exhibitions, I’ve had my artist’s statements published in an edited form without my knowledge, I’ve had statements written by gallery curators and posted next to my work that “the views within the work do not represent the gallery.” So it’s not been an easy ride.”

The full article is here.