alexander 
rahal



He/Him

Painter, Graphic Designer, Photographer                                          
realism & unreal, atmospheric, fantasy & psychological




 

I have been thinking about my past in relation to my presence. I am realizing how long  ago it was when I lived in Montreal, and even longer ago when I was a child in  Medicine Hat. I am distant toward this past. Memories make me who I am as an individual, and so by blurring these memories with distractions, I become presently absent. Absent is an automatic present and not a deliberate past.

In this instance, in my first painting “past”, I uncover the past as a relatively  unincorporated image of where I lived in Montreal. I utilized photography and projected  it onto canvas, realistically rendering the image with paint. However, this painting  would never be what is truly depicted, and it would never be what I saw at the moment  I took that photo in Montreal. This symbol of a memory describes internalization because when I externalize the memory, it is uncanny in the present through nostalgia. If uncanny memories are what I recount, then I become a simulacrum, an unsettled imitation.

I juxtapose this “past” painting with the “present” painting as ask myself why I am  absent. My answer is a never-ending nightmare of incongruencies & overwhelming  thoughts — a hyperreal and automated reality, without mindfulness. What is visible are  fleeting impressions: what is cute and scary, what can be predicted or unpredictable &  what is real and not real. “Present” is supposed to represent my current state of mind.  The irony in “present” is it depicts everything but my presence.

Finally, my self-portrait looks at both previous paintings in a third painting called  “absent”. I am in the living room of a vacated apartment unit I once lived in Montreal — it was once my home, and it was temporary. I gander, in between “past” and “present” within a figment of a living space.





Previous Works

 
MHC
Art & Design Program – MHC

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Contact Info
livingroomartdesign@gmail.com
403.529.3959
Address
399 College Ave SE
Medicine Hat, AB - Canada
T1A 3Y6
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