Habeas Viscus

Description

Artist Notes

In 2019, I came across Alexander Weheliye’s book, Habeas Viscus. The way it was written immediately resonated with me—not only as an individual, but as a Gazan. On paper, I am often recognized as a legal subject, with rights and a passport that should, in theory, grant me recourse to justice. Yet, in many contexts—especially at airports and border crossings—I have been dehumanized, reduced to just a “Gazan,” regardless of the Swedish passport I carry. In those moments, I become a bare, exposed human body, stripped of political personhood and left vulnerable outside the full protection of the law. This encounter—being marked by my origins rather than my legal status—helped me understand Weheliye’s argument: how the flesh, the “viscus,” becomes a historical site of exclusion and hypervisibility. Later, I wrote a journal article titled “Palestine and Habeas Viscus,” exploring what it means to exist as human without ever being fully recognized as such. In that work, I tried to capture my lived experience: my body is the archive of wounds, bureaucracy, trauma, and resistance—where every scar and every border crossed is a testament to the struggle of habeas viscus. The work is not only about flesh and injury, but also about interrogation, blood, borders, and the relentless negotiation for dignity in the face of systems that attempt to erase our personhood.

Preservation Notes

MATERIALS AND CONSTRUCTION This is a physical work: an acrylic and mixed-media collage on canvas, recorded in the medium field as "Acrylic and Mixed media on canvas" and measuring 41 x 33 cm. The description states that the collage is built from boarding passes and tickets collected over a decade and across several countries, worked together with acrylic passages of red and blue linework and brown patches. The work therefore combines a painted acrylic layer with adhered commercial paper ephemera. No adhesive, varnish, or sealant is named in the record, and no statement about the current physical condition of the object can be made from the record's own text. CONSERVATION REQUIREMENTS The stated support is canvas: keep the work in stable relative humidity, avoid direct sunlight, dust with a soft dry brush only, do not use solvents on acrylic surfaces, and support the stretcher or panel when handling. Because the work incorporates boarding passes, tickets, and other paper ephemera, the more demanding requirement governs: these are acidic commercial stocks that were never manufactured to last, and continued deterioration (yellowing, embrittlement, fading of thermal or dye-based printing) should be treated as an ongoing risk. Assessment by a paper conservator is recommended, together with encapsulation or equivalent protection from light, moisture, and oxygen for any vulnerable elements. Lifting edges at collage overlaps should be consolidated before the work is handled or framed. Store and display flat; never roll. Any window-mounting or hinging of paper elements should use acid-free, lignin-free board, Japanese tissue, and starch paste; no dry-mounting and no pressure-sensitive tape. In all cases use UV-filtering glazing; the saturated reds, yellows, and oranges are the passages most at risk of fading. DIGITAL RECORD The original capture was scanned in Sweden as a TIFF master in high, medium, and low resolution variants. The masters are held outside this archive, and the file uploaded here is a converted derivative. Current asset: JPEG, 1156 x 912 pixels. Maximum reproduction size at 300 DPI is approximately 3.9 inches on the long edge. WARNING: This file is a low-resolution derivative and is inadequate for print reproduction or detailed study. The high-resolution TIFF master must be sourced and uploaded before this work is sold, printed, or reproduced. Sanity accepts TIFF uploads directly, so no conversion is required: the high-resolution TIFF master should be uploaded as the primary image, with the medium and low resolution variants retained in the gallery field. OUTSTANDING VERIFICATION 1. materials was absent from the record and has been populated from the medium field and the description only; the specific adhesive, ground, and any surface coating remain unrecorded and require confirmation. 2. location is absent: the current whereabouts of the physical work must be recorded. 3. The medium field states the support is canvas, while the description characterizes the work as a collage assembled from boarding passes and tickets. Whether the ephemera is adhered to a canvas support or to a paper-based substrate is unresolved in the record. Physical examination is required to settle this, because canvas and paper supports require different treatment. 4. The high-resolution TIFF master held outside the archive must be located and linked to this record.

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