Outset Israel Supported Anisa Ashkar’s Mashkahara performance-based installation showcased at Fresh Paint 2 Contemporary Art Fair in March 2009. The location chosen for Anisa Ashkar's installation-performance Mashkahara drew upon the artist's own life. The point of departure for the work was the railroad tracks at the Turkish station, built in the late nineteenth century, on the blurred borderline between Jaffa and Tel Aviv. The station is not far from Andromeda's Rock, named after the heroine of Greek mythology.
The existence of borders connecting/separating places, histories, cultures and identities and the act of sailing away from current reality towards the mythological past in order to examine the present have been at the core of Ashkar's work. The eponymous 'Mashkahara' is a charcoal making device using slow combustion, a traditional profession in Ashkar's family which is still practiced in some Arab villages and towns. Charcoal, chalk, and milk are the materials and metaphors frequently employed by Ashkar in her performances.
Works by Anisa Ashkar were donated to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art collectively by the artist and Outset Contemporary Art Fund.
