Never One Thing Alone at Gallery TPW, Toronto

By Terence Dick

Never One Thing Alone, 2025, installation view (photo: Darren Rigo)

Amongst many other horrific things, the war in Gaza is a war on the imagination. It’s an onslaught on our ability to see the Palestinian territory as something other than a war zone, a wreckage, or, as Donald Trump put it, hell on earth. Amongst the many hopeful things to be gleaned from the exhibition Never One Thing Alone, now on view at Gallery TPW, is the reminder that what is currently being rendered uninhabitable – both strategically and literally – has been a place of resistance, endurance, and solidarity. Curated by Liz Ikiriko and Jaclyn Quaresma, and co-presented with the Images Festival, this collection of videos, photography, and publications provides an essential rejoinder to the dominant depiction of the occupied territories as seen on our daily newsfeeds. It collects evidence of collective action, evidence of creation, and, simply, evidence of life at a time when we most desperately need it.

Never One Thing Alone, 2025, installation view (photo: Darren Rigo)

The core of the exhibition is a photobook archive assembled by Roï Saade that adds over twenty more artists to the gathering and extends its geographical reach to the rest of the Middle East and North Africa. Even a cursory look at these publications, each with its own short summary and booklet for audience response, will convince one to settle into the cushions provided and discover a wide range of artists working with photography to document, depict, and reimagine their world. From Maen Hammad’s images of Palestinian skateboarders in the West Bank, which show us the indominable spirit of young people to conquer oppressive architecture, to Ayla Hibri’s dreamlike, quasi-fictional exploration of psyche, archetypes, and symbolism, this library opens the door to a world of artists who, through their creations, model an inkling of hope in a dark time.

aka TAWLA, Tarweedeh Zine, 2023, publication (photo: Darren Rigo)

Along with these books is a publication available for purchase from the aka TAWLA collective who focus their attention on artists from the SWANA (Southwest Asia and North Africa) region. Their Tarweedeh Zine takes its name from a form of Palestinian folk song that goes back to the time of British colonization and was used to send coded messages to imprisoned family members. The pocket-sized collection of nine Palestinian artists functions as a means of communication linking global allies, using visual storytelling to forge the type of grassroots connections and communities that have long been formed through zine culture.

These curated projects within the larger exhibition are complimented by wall-hung photographic works by Maen Hammad, Tamara Abdul Hadi and Roï Saade, and Tanya Habjouqa. Each in their own way evoke daily life, struggle, and imagination in a counter-narrative to the media’s portrayal of the Middle East.

Sharlene Bamboat, twenty five years swayed between our teeth, 2025, two-channel video installation (photo: Darren Rigo)

Three videos are also included in Never One Thing Alone. Joyce Joumaa’s untitled work layers a faint projection of Mustafa Abu Ali’s 1974 film They Do Not Exist under a vibrant recording of a FIFA video game soccer match between Manchester United and the Chilean Palestinian team Palestino. Alongside that is a single-channel work by Dana Qaddah titled With all that has passed, and all that is to happen, which presents a snapshot of Lebanon, in the streets and in the lives of young people, at the time of its political and economic crisis. Both artists will be speaking in the gallery with both curators on May 10 at noon.

Isolated in its own room is Montreal-based artist Sharlene Bamboat’s two-channel video installation twenty five years swayed between our teeth, which is ironic because it is the work most explicitly engaged with the idea of solidarity and networks of connection. With a soundtrack anchored by musician Mili Hong’s drum solo interspersed with a polyphony of voices referencing texts from Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Etel Adnan, Pauline Oliveiros, and others, the visuals blend footage of Hong with hand processed Super 8 film and graphic elements to evoke the messy (aka noisy) work of cohesion, connection, and liberatory community. The revolutionary spirit of free jazz, a collective improvisation of non-hierarchical creation, rings through the gallery and sets the tone for an exhibition that instills a sense of optimism despite all the indications to the contrary.

Never One Thing Alone continues until May 31.
Gallery TPW: https://www.gallerytpw.ca/
The gallery is accessible.

Terence Dick is a freelance writer living in Toronto. He is the editor of Akimblog.