Arafat 1968, 2014, and Arafat, 2002, 2014 are part of a body of work titled Between Two Times, created by Amer Shomali. The body of work delves into the construction and deconstruction of the Palestinian image. The two works depict two portraits of Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat (b.1929 d.2004). The two works depict Arafat at different times in history. Shomali used the Palestinian Keffiyeh to create his work. Shomali cut out some of the black cross-stitched threads to delineate each portrait’s contour and snagged out others.

Shomali was inspired by two TIME Magazine cover pages. The first magazine was published in 1968, and the second in 2002. Drawn by a Mexican artist, the 1968 cover page depicts Arafat’s portrait as firm and youthful, wearing black sunglasses. As stated on the cover page, Arafat was called the Fedayeen Leader – translating to the freedom fighters’ leader in Arabic. Back then, Arafat’s portrait, symbolic of the PLO, hinted at the organization’s potent political and military force in the Middle East. In sharp contrast, the second magazine, published in 2002, shows a photographic image of Arafat seated on a chair. The image was taken under dim light, portraying exhausted Arafat and in his old age. The cover page title reads “All Boxed In”. It is a play on words, a cynical critique of the 1968 TIME Magazine issue. The long-awaited dream of freeing Palestine in 1968 is “boxed in” a besieged and occupied territory.

Signed on the back of the keffiyeh