The Field of Dreams

Through two new series - The Junk Garden and The Protective Shield - Khalaf examines the symbolic and material presence of steel in public space, reflecting on its shifting meanings within contemporary political and social realities. Working in oil painting, Khalaf focuses on industrial and urban elements such as bulldozers, vehicles, surveillance cameras, garbage bins, and steel barrels. These objects appear not merely as infrastructure, but as charged symbols that mediate the relationship between the individual and larger systems of power. By isolating and recontextualising these forms, Khalaf highlights their paradoxical nature - steel as both protection and control, defence and domination.