THE BLAST

The Blast series was created in the wake of the 4th of August explosion that destroyed the port of Beirut and its surroundings. The giant canvases are the response of Karam to the death and devastation, evoking the political power struggles with their by-product of negligence that contributed to the explosion.

For the largest work of the series, Karam repeated the act of painting a new layer daily for over a month on one canvas, purposeless. Through the layers emerged a world of serenity and calm and a floating giant human figure, expressionless but focused only on control of its own gravity. Karam considered the resulting work “Everywhere, Nowhere, Somewhere” to be a process of healing.

Nowhere, Somewhere, Elsewhere, 2021
Mixed Media on Canvas, 200 x 1000 cm
White Blast, 2021
Mixed Media on Canvas, 100 x 150 cm