Angelina Max Chahine is a second-generation Lebanese person who grew up in the Western suburbs of Sydney; Darug land, passionate about portrait work exploring identity, expression and connection from intimate settings to Sydney's music and rave scene. Their work explores a range of multimedia forms from photography, video and film in the event and editorial realm.
They have photographed events for DJs and musicians from around the globe including DJ Habibi Funk & Nabihah Iqbal and contributed to work for local Sydney exhibitions and publications like Acclaim Magazine, Betchouf SWANA art collective & PULP magazine. Their relationship to their Lebanese, religious upbringing often informs their artistic practice.
DO YOU SEE ME?
This is real! This exists! This is an identity!
Max Chahine, is a non-binary 2nd generation Lebanese artist, who grew up on Darug Land and was raised in a Lebanese, Christian environment, yet found themselves existing outside of the expected familial and social norms. As a Third Culture Kid (TCK) they grappled with a sense of displacement on a personal level as not many in their environment seemed to resonate with their lived experience through adolescence/early adulthood. Seeking to gain a sense of belonging and eager to explore their identity as something that has beauty in its parts and cannot be confined by one ideal, their photographic practice helped them gain a newfound sense of belonging through the freedom and value of good community.
“All-encompassing displacement and privilege to dream”
Max Chahines’ poetic photographic work is a touching exploration of fluid identity moulded by their upbringing as a child of diaspora existing within intersectionalities. Their work guides us on a journey of self-discovery similar to their own, allowing us to appreciate the beauty of seemingly ‘paradoxical’ intersecting identities – “a journey of, what can feel like, all-encompassing displacement and hence, at times, a tumultuous relationship to culture.”
‘Specs of My Core Exploding Outwards’ is a series of five prints that captures the beauty in the culmination of co-existing parts of different cultures. The work addresses the lack of representation of physical bodies that encompass these multitude of beings. These conflicting portrayals are displayed through progressive markers of identity as defined by Max through body hair, tattoos, coloured hair and intertwined masculine and feminine aesthetics, as well as the overlay of Arabic script, familiar patterns and jewelleries.
As described by the artist, Max Chahine, the photographs challenge the “whole idea of traditional, the Western orientalist tradition [as]...a lot of orientalist art has been from the perspective of the West not from the perspective of native people. “
In their own words Max guides us through what each photograph depicts in the order from one to five, mirroring their journey to community.
“The first image places the subject within the frame of a mirror tied with poetry speaking about being stuck in asynchronous realities; confinement, a lack of understanding”
“The second image [was inspired by] community and finding similar people [which]... ties in visually with the kind of interlocked with people, they are wearing white and yellow in complementary ways to show that is necessary to have others to come to this realisation and we need community and love and respect” As the poetry says “grow, from specs of my core, to the new, around me this apparent homeland and [it’s about] finding that stability in people”
“The third image [is]...the whole idea of disrupting the typical view, so having the person in my images look…powerful and dominant by specifically looking at the camera to challenge the viewer.” The poetry “ just under the eyes [says] ‘Do you see yourself in me? Do I see myself in you?’ and the look of the person is something that seems contradictory; to be Arab conservative, queer, religious/not religious and all these kinds of things that ‘shouldn’t’ work together and having the person look at the camera was a huge part of that to kind of say ‘ Look at me’ ‘See me’ ‘I exist’ ‘This is what I am’”
“Image four depicts..interlocking that creates the stability that strength through one another that we are able to find… and do these things. It is symmetrical and comes together as one. As much as this piece is about an individual, it's also about community and seeing yourself in others and the benefit of that.”
“The last one is about gratitude and [that] I can exist,...this is the most visually controversial, so having body hair out, tattoos and coloured hair [which] is not typically allowed…[and the] traditional male garment but the poetry is talking about being grateful and seeing beauty and gratitude in even the most normal things. If you were to show this to an Australian person, they might say ‘yeah ok they have body hair and tattoos’ but the poetry is saying that is something to be grateful for in my own life at least because it's not that easy to do that/become this or present yourself in that way.”
Throughout the process, Max was heavily inspired by the Moroccan Photographer Lalla Essaydi, whose inclusion in the book ‘Girl on Girl’ displays photographic works of Arabic women that disrupt Western voyeuristic traditions and employ the female gaze to return the power to Arab women in dictating how they are to be seen. Maxs’ work seeks to challenge masculine and feminine ideals and establish that their coexistence is to be accepted and seen. The beauty and delicate intimacy of both Lalla Essaydi and Maxs’ work are a fundamental part in re-writing aesthetic ideals and pushing the boundaries of ‘consciously controlling the way we see and understand that beauty’ [Girl on Girl, 2017].
The project ‘Specs of My Core Exploding Outwards’ began as a reprieve from their commercial practice as a photographer amongst Eoras music and rave scene, as the nature of the work had sucked dry the initial joy they had sought from the intimate settings of late night dancefloors. Taking a break and refocusing their photographic practice on this project allowed them to put their whole heart and creative energy into the personal project that was inspired by an early journal entry. The journal entry and later the project, allowed the artist to unpack “a lot of internal tension and conflict not accepting certain parts of myself” as they delved into understanding and re-connecting the parts of themselves they had been taught exist in opposition to one another.
Lalla Essaydi - Converging Territories #26, 2004
The lines of the journal entry not only inspired the work but became embodied in the physical prints as the lines of Arabic poetry seen across the works. The lines of poetry exploring nuances of displacement, privilege and value of community overlay parts of the image, converging to create a collage of self-discovery and new-found belonging in those alike. Taking notes from the Iranian Artist, Shirin Neshat, and the Farsi writing she scribes upon her work, Max engaged with the method through her Arabic poetry as she admires both its beauty and ability to symbolise cross-cultural distance as a tool for communication with Western audiences.
The method is one of the most pertinent aspects of the artwork as its process expands the project's impact beyond the value of the image. The method was so special as it allowed for Max to not only build her own practice but also relationships and story through close friends and wider community, giving them the comfort to play and engage with her personal life and practice. The methods’ embodiment of both inward and outward connection is “something people may achieve through cultural practices but you did that through your work”, as said by Faid from Betchouf Collective. On a personal level, for Max and Arabic literate viewers, it is a connection to and through language. On a community level it is the transmission of ideas, knowledge and emotions that are contained in the words yet also the process, as the words were written in collaboration with Junnade, a friend of theirs, and their mother.
Max says it “is reflective of our lives, that there is this barrier whether that is intentional or not” because as much as “you look or try to understand I don’t think you ever will, and most people don’t try to understand it.”
Translations
(by order of image )
My upbringing is a memory,
Of an ocean of what is and what isn’t.
And I have now found myself further submerged,
Below waves of asynchronous truths.
I grow,
From specs of my core
To the new
Around me this apparent homeland
Do you see yourself in me? Do I see myself in you?
I am still plagued with understanding and reconciling the two,
Between this interior homeland, and current homeland that loves and respects my dreams.
Once meeting you, I saw myself in you;
Our renewal through love and companionship and truths of our common world.
Don’t forget this blessing.
From waters of justice
This ordinary abundance
They wish for
My people of the motherland
Here and there
I returned to belonging and gratitude.
Maxs’ work was first exhibited at the Betchouf Art Collective Slow Sips Exhibition [@betchouf], betchouf meaning ‘you’ll see’ in Arabic. The collective offers a space for artists of the SWANA region, of diaspora and from the western suburbs of so-called Sydney. They invite and encourage creatives to share stories. The exhibition was an invitation for exchange between SWANA creatives to cultivate a deeper experience of community. “So many queer, trans Arabs who had isolating experiences, of being kicked out of home or had to leave, approached me saying they had never seen anything like what I’ve made. Telling me they felt seen and beautiful and I felt honoured that they shared so much of their lives with me” Max said. To them demonstrating the importance of these spaces as they validate those who may have not felt seen in the past. Upon first glance the separation and lack of understanding rings true for a western audience, but to extend on this Max chose to include the translations of the Arabic poetry to invite others into their experience of displacement.
“From that came immense joys, love, common truths and understanding. It was the first time I felt truly seen and allowed to just exist because it was that we saw each other, there was no need to explain parts of myself or little nuances because they were living the same reality”
As they continue to find their feet within their photographic practice they hope to return to music photography and re-ignite the joy they found in “observing people feeling the way I was feeling so free and able to move how they wanted and dress however they wanted”. The liberation they find within rave culture and the continuation of their self-discovery journey has allowed them to sharpen the bigger picture of themselves as they intuitively move back towards a newfound feeling of belonging.
The works were exhibited at Betchouf: Slow Sips Exhibition and at Goodspace: Khandaan (Descent) Exhibition.
Maxs’ work is also available for purchase on https://maxjpegprints.company.site/
CONTRIBUTORS
Models: Sara El Youghun, Felix Officer-McIntyre, Paul Zaki and Lydia Adriaans.
Stylist: Sara El Youghun
Assist: Felix Officer-McIntyre
Written component: Written in prose by Max Chahine and rewritten into poetry in Modern Standard Arabic by Junnade Ali & Jocelyne Chahine.
Work referenced: Girl on Girl : Art and Photography in the Age of the Female Gaze by Charlotte Jansen, 2017.