Khaled Sabsabi’s journey from Lebanon to Australia in November 1976 was shaped by war, displacement and loss. He arrived as a young person in a family that had already weathered separation and uncertainty. These experiences pushed him to look outward beyond his immediate circumstances, to seek communities and peoples who understood forced displacement, marginalisation, racism and silencing.
Sabsabi’s site-specific, multimedia experience, khalil, encompasses object, video, scent and sound. It is both welcoming and imperative, striking a balance between poetic resonance and profound respect and acknowledgment. Its central philosophical proposition rejects absolute conclusions or fixed forms within the physical realm. Instead, it embraces flux, a continuum of interconnected paths, processes and conditions contained within an all-encompassing circle of wholeness.
The work’s title is an Arabic word for close friend or companion. The underlying principles of khalil are rooted in the idea of human and social commonality. These guiding philosophies draw upon Tasawwuf (Sufi) sensibilities, which represent the inner, mystical dimension of Islam concerned with the relationship between the “inner self”, the “outer self”, and the divine. khalil does not claim to solve or resolve; instead, it offers a point of meeting, respecting stories and places, and creating room for reflection and contemplation.
—Michael Dagostino
