Ibrahim El-Salahi Untitled from Prison Notebook 1976

On view

MoMA, Floor 4, 420 The David Geffen Galleries

People and rocks

Ibrahim El-Salahi: “People and rocks. People and rocks. People and rocks.” I kept repeating this almost like a prayer, trying to see how in certain situations you can be petri ed, you can become static. At the same time, you are a human being. You have a heart, you have a mind, you have a brain. You have an apparatus within you that can show you the right way and the wrong way, so you can maneuver your destiny as you go along. But sometimes it takes you back. By the actions of others, you are made into a stone to protect yourself, to protect your innocence. You petrify yourself because of the situation.

Publication excerpt from Ibrahim El-Salahi. Prison Notebook, 1976. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2018.

Medium: Ink on paper from a notebook with thirty-eight ink on paper drawings
Dimensions: 11 1/4 × 6 5/8" (28.6 × 16.8 cm)
Credit: Acquired through the generosity of Marlene Hess and James D. Zirin, Catie and Donald Marron, Alice and Tom Tisch (in honor of Christophe Cherix), Marnie Pillsbury and Committee on Drawings and Prints Fund
Object number: 319.2017.7
Copyright: © 2021 Ibrahim El-Salahi / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / DACS, London
Associated work: Prison Notebook
Department: Drawings and Prints

This work is part of an associated work with 34 other works online.
Ibrahim El-Salahi has 51 works online.
There are 16,434 drawings online.

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