10/06/2026
MOHAMMAD EL RAWAS
“STOP MAKING SENSE” is a museum
By Mishka Mojabber Mourani
The title of Mohamad Rawas’ latest exhibition is a fragment laden with connotation. It could be a command or imperative “stop” or a descriptive statement, such as, “when you are drunk you stop making sense.” It could be declarative, as in “I stop making sense.” Or perhaps infinitive, “To stop making sense…” and interrogative, “When do I stop making sense?”
The carefully laid out exhibition in Saleh Barakat’s elegant gallery relies on patterns and juxtapositions. It features 45 situations with repetitions of three-dimensional objects, a reliance on cultural allusions, including paintings from the classical period to the contemporary, references to mythology and historical events, and repetitions of themes, objects, and foci of attention.
Rawas has traditionally used allusion to cultural phenomena in his work, but he has never been explicit in his references. In this exhibition he makes every effort to explicate connections. This is not an exhibition, it is an installation, the 45 tableaux form the exhibits of a museum. Every exhibit is clearly labeled with dates and material references that uncover the links and clarify the appositions. Rawas is the consummate curator who assumes the responsibility of explaining why Art helps us make sense of life. After all, there can be no Art without an observer who experiences it, and by doing so uncovers a fundamental truth.
Rawas’ exhibition STOP MAKING SENSE is a daring project. The complex world he creates as he peels away layer after layer of civilization appears to be explicit in an attempt to explain his art. Each tableau is like a carefully executed miniature that succeeds in complicating the experience of art further. We, the audience, bring to the experience of art what we are feeling, and who we are, at a particular moment in time.
Even the exhibition area is a statement about the theme. Precise, cerebral and meticulous work, set up in a pristine, minimalist space, each artefact juxtaposes and combines references to culture, particularly the Western tradition and the world of Japanese anime.
Each exhibit is a complex statement by the artist. Each exhibit adds a layer of complexity stating that art is not static, it is a supremely personal experience, and no matter how much he tries to explain his allusions, this artist in his daring attempt to talk about art in a meaningful manner, STOP MAKING SENSE is not an interrogation, it is not an exhortation, it is not a declaration, it is not an intention, it is all and none of these descriptors. It is a celebration, it is an affirmation, it is an act of defiance, and it is a negation. Art is a world within our world. It is the non- sense of life, and all the artist can do is attempt to bring his moment of truth to life with any of the means at his disposal, knowing full well that at the heart of his quest is a version of David Lynch’s observation
I don’t know why people expect art to make sense
When they accept full well that life doesn’t make sense.
