Hani Zurob’s painting, Flying Lessons #12, 2013, serves as a poignant critique of the restriction of movement in the Palestinian territories, consisting of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip. Zurob also hints at his fear of deportation. When he moved to Paris, the Israeli government forbade him to re-enter the Palestinian territories.

The painting features a young boy seated on a bouncing chair in the upper right corner. Seemingly lifted into the air, the boy aims to overcome a colossal wall—the apartheid wall built inside the West Bank in Palestine. The artwork is predominantly painted in lavender purple with shades of grey. A thin horizontal strip of skylike blue fills the top. The mix of subdued lavender and minimal space for an open sky reflects the artist’s grim perception of his homeland. The painting demonstrates a sense of stillness or someone suspended in limbo.

Engaging with concepts of space and distance, the artist intertwines two worlds: that of Qudsi, his son, during his visits to Palestine, and Zurob’s exile, namely in Paris. Usually, Qudsi and Sabreen Daoud, the artist’s wife, undertake frequent journeys to Jerusalem for identity card renewals and family visits. In contrast, the artist grapples with the inability to return to Palestine due to the looming threat of deportation.

Hani Zurob’s life has been defined by displacement and unwavering artistic resilience. Because he cannot return to Palestine for fear of deportation, Zurob initiated an ongoing body of work, a series titled Flying Lessons, in 2009. In some of the paintings, Zurob utilizes tar as an expressive medium. The recent paintings depict hard-edged, minimal shapes with sharp planes created meticulously using opaque acrylic paints. The series derives its name from a touching question posed by the two-year-old Qudsi. When Qudsi and his mother departed from the Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris, heading to Palestine, the boy asked his father, Hani: “Why don’t you travel with us to Jerusalem?” To which the artist responded, 

“I am learning how to fly!”. 

Hani Zurob, originally from Gaza, still resides in Paris, patiently awaiting the day he can soar back home.