Cherine Fahd: Apókryphos

Apókryphos (2018–19) presents a series of 24 photographs reproduced from Cherine Fahd’s family archive, depicting her Grandfather’s funeral and burial in 1975, when the artist was only two years old. Taken by an unknown photographer, Fahd overlays these images with a numerical system of annotations and footnotes, forensically yet intimately speculating upon the mysteries of the event. Derived from the Ancient Greek term apókryphos, meaning ‘hidden, concealed or obscure’, Fahd renders public that which is generally kept private: the grief of losing a loved one, and the transgressive act of documenting those who gather to mourn. Offering a visual and literary response to the ritual of mourning, Apókryphos considers the physical ways in which human emotions are visualised, experienced and witnessed.