LAST CHANCE Nour Malas: Evil is Banal

Nour Malas’ solo exhibition starts with Hannah Arendt’s quote about the Nazis’ unconscionable acts of genocide: they were not exceptional but part of a wider belief that estimated some human lives as disposable. For Malas, displacement upheaves feelings of belonging; this unsettling becomes one’s condition, not merely an effect. When home is an ambiguous place, the desire for consistency carries reassurance even as one remains aware of the cracks in this elusive safety. Her work traverses the physical and emotional landscapes of worlds increasingly marked by pervasive violence. The artist layers paint, blurring the distinction between abstraction and the presence of figures; she uses a palette of colours she associates both with the materiality of the body and responses of alarm or anxiety, manifestations of psycho-social reactions.