"Imperfect Lovers" is a glass-and-neon work arrayed to form two pairs of white semicircles, each framing an Arabic word using identical letters.



As Gaza-born Taysir Batniji crafted this 2013 work in Arabic, "Imperfect Lovers" is likely to be read in terms of the decadeslong effort of Palestinian militants to dislodge Israel's occupation forces from the land of Palestine.



Batniji seems to have had something else in mind.



Perhaps the most beautiful of these is the 2014 work "Memory of Water". It consists of five wooden panels laid out end-to-end on one of the gallery's floor.



Comprised of 177 black rectangles (39x31cm) placed alongside one another to run around the four walls of one gallery, the work at first looks like an aesthetic complement to the five panels of "Memory of Water".



Perhaps the most valid comparison to be made between Batniji and Hatoum is that, while both artists are deeply connected to Palestine, neither wants their work to be read exclusively through the lens of the Palestinian condition.

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