Christine Safatly lives and works in Beirut, LB

Christine Safatly’s practice departs from the artist’s lived experience and immediate environment to explore gendered realities and forms of alienation. She employs natural and synthetic materials such as metal, sugar, charcoal, and latex to produce paintings, drawings, and sculptures. Through techniques of abstraction and montage, she explores themes of bodily pain and everyday encounters with systems of oppression specific but not unique to Lebanon.

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Christine Safatly, Piece 1 (detail), 2019, from the series There is No Difference Between Ketchup and Ripe Tomatoes, 2019-20, fabric pierced with nails and pins, 74 × 24 × 12 cm © Christine Safatly

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Christine Safatly, Piece 2, 2019, from the series There is No Difference Between Ketchup and Ripe Tomatoes, 2019-20, fabric pierced with wires, 145 × 15 cm © Christine Safatly

Safatly’s drawings and paintings reflect her study of human anatomy and its physiological processes. Bones form the core or first layer of many works and are represented with meticulous detail and accuracy. The artist’s subsequent process of abstraction is an intuitive embodiment of her memories, feelings, desires, and current conditions.

Critically addressing her everyday struggles against patriarchal structures, Safatly is inspired by the legacy of feminist art practices. The female body is always a point of reference: her sculptures use clearly gendered objects like bras along with industrial materials such as wire, latex, and nails to create a sense of intimacy, while articulating a desire for corporeal autonomy.

For the 12th Berlin Biennale, Safatly presents sculptures and a drawing from her body of work There Is No Difference between Ketchup and Ripe Tomatoes (2019–20). These works illustrate the artist’s search for harmony in reconciling the unyielding tension between her own sense of self and the environment that perpetually seeks to alienate her.

Reem Shadid

Exhibitions

Lost In The Right Direction, 2021/22, Deir el Kalaa ruins, Beit Meri (LB)

Vices & Validations, 2019, Institut français du Liban, Beirut (LB)

Collective exhibition of the students from the Fine Arts Department of the Lebanese University, 2018, Institut français du Liban, Beirut (LB)

Christine Safatly, Art Scene Gallery, Beirut (LB) (solo)