Katya Traboulsi Transforms Mortar Shells into Art at Leila Heller Gallery

Leila Heller Gallery presents Katya A. Traboulsi's solo exhibition 'Perpetual Identities' opening April 26, 2023. The Beirut-based artist recontextualizes a mortar shell she received as a child during the Lebanese Civil War in 1975. In 2014, she began an installation of 46 handcrafted shells, each representing a different country and made by native artisans using materials like ceramics, porcelain, resin, wood, and iron. The shells, measuring 75 x 20 cm with brass or iron bases and tops, are adorned with cultural motifs to transform symbols of destruction into emblems of humanity. The exhibition also features 'Rej3a ya mama,' a collection of painted rear truck doors from Tripoli, Lebanon, celebrating truck drivers and their stories. The works explore identity, heritage, and the loss of ancestral knowledge under globalization.