A Thousand Times No 2010

Bahia Shehab created this artwork, entitled 'A Thousand Times No', with black paint on transparent squares. I can only imagine the process of creating it! Each no is individual, crafted with precision. Each character is so different, full of variety. And there are a lot of them – a whole wall of no's! The artist probably felt a great sense of purpose, maybe even defiance, in repeating and reshaping this word so many times. These forms start to feel like both language and image, thought and feeling, as it moves from being a word and becomes a statement about making meaning through repetition and difference. It reminds me of other artists who use repetition to find a kind of freedom. Shehab is in conversation with other artists, remixing and reinterpreting. And maybe, in the act of painting a thousand no's, she found a new way of saying yes.