When Tomorrow Arrives We Will Love Life

Titled after Mahmoud Darwish’s poem A State of Siege (2002), this exhibition will present completely new works that confront the realities of modernization in the post-oil Arab world, leaning into the question of the future.

Shalabi’s material vernacular ranges from fragile ceramics to commercial concrete. Castings of vehicular and industrial objects like construction truck seats, gas pumps, shock-resistant rubber mats, and truck beds function as emotional provocations—interrogating the illusions of progress, safety, and direction that have been prescribed by the Western gaze. By exposing surface cracks, emptiness, and other moments of vulnerability, Shalabi pushes against the speed of modernity and the ways in which its false promises alter our connection to the body, gender, and self.

Shalabi’s abstracted, site responsive installation reflects a new exercise in experimentation. Rather than directing viewers into a predetermined notion or narrative, Shalabi situates his sculptures on the line between meaning and ambiguity—inviting the viewer to draw their own connections to the many themes that underpin his practice.