Text by Kevin Jones
Poems by Salah Stétié

Since the late 1960s, Chaouki Choukini has developed an astoundingly consistent aesthetic worldview.

His sculptural works, mainly in wood but occasionally in marble or stone, range from horizontal Lieux and Paysages to upright, anthropomorphic, almost totemic figures.

At first glance, the works may appear somewhat primitivist. A closer look, however, reveals a sophisticated interrogation of organic and mechanical worlds, where curvaceous mounds are punctuated by a regiment of pegs, or undulating bases bristle with teeth-like crags.

Discursively, Choukini layers an eerie latency into his works: mazes of slits, recesses, and multi-level cavities evoke some vanished human presence on the tense horizon line; the ubiquitous “cord” is a taut yet silent marker of dormant sound. Choukini is tantalizingly dark.

His is a world of brooding, empty spaces, where narratives struggle to tell themselves, and everything is in suspense.

Format: 24.7 cm x 17.7 cm, 168 pages, English

Published: December 2019

Texts by Venetia Porter, Dr Maha Azizé Sultan and a conversation with Mazen Kerbage

Laure Ghorayeb is a self-taught Lebanese artist born in 1931 in the village of Deir al-Qamar.

She first started out as a cultural journalist/critic and a poet and has worked at several magazines
including Shi’r, L’Orient, Le Jour and Annahar.

Currently known for her intricate and detailed ink drawings, Ghorayeb’s work represents chronicles of
her life as well as events and people that have had an impact on her such as the Lebanese civil wars and members of her family.

This publication looks back on her transition from writer to painter. “Laure Ghorayeb: Black on White” is the second publication in the Saradar Collection x Kaph Books series and includes texts by Venetia Porter and Dr. Maha Azizé Sultan as well as a conversation between the artist and her son Mazen Kerbage.

Format: 21 cm x 27 cm, 236 pages, English / Arabic

Published: December 2019