Preface to the second edition, 2011

I was recently taken aback by how most paintings on display in the Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha lack some (but not all) reflections. I decided to provide some. I am hoping that the reflections in my photographs will eventually leave my works and attach themselves to the paintings in the museum.

On Walid Sadek's Love Is Blind, 2010

In 2006, the artist Walid Sadek exhibited his Love Is Blind.  The installation consisted of two parallel white walls on which Sadek placed five captions.
The captions referenced paintings by Mustafa Farroukh, the founder of a national Lebanese art movement, and included Farroukh’s name, the title, date, and provenance of a Farroukh painting I expected to see displayed next to the caption, but was not.
In 2008, I asked Walid to borrow his installation for this exhibition.  Walid refused. 

His refusal was most appropriate. 

Walid must have sensed that was fascinated me was not his installation, and even less Farroukh’s paintings.  He must have sensed that what I am literally after are the shadows that shaped his walls and captions.  And that in this regard, I don’t need his permission because these shadows move independently of his will.