The Trinity Portraits

Abstract

In Raafat Ishak’s Trinity Portraits five intimately scaled painted portraits of school friends left behind in Egypt were painted referencing tiny black and white photographs traditionally given as souvenirs to a friend who is travelling over a long distance. In the portraits each friend is given a sleeping dormitory (new home) at Trinity College (Univeristy of Melbourne), as a way to entice them back. They are proclaimed as the architects of the dormitories and given hats depicting the buildings, their names also change to reflect their new status, for example Ahmad Clarke and Osama Bishops. The hats are Jewish Kippahs on Muslim boys’ heads and occupying a Christian institution, the perfect ..