Installation view of Yazan Khalili, Against Total Meaning, 2025. Embroidery and silkscreen on merchandise. Courtesy of the artist and Hawaii Contemporary.
Yazan Khalili’s work for HT25 emerges from his deeply engaged artistic and political practice, which interrogates systems of power, representation, and resistance. Against Total Meaning is a project that takes the form of merchandise—sweaters, T-shirts, hoodies, caps, and bucket hats—each emblazoned with fragments of a statement by the artist that critically examines the role of art in a time of genocide in Palestine. Through these wearable pieces, Khalili challenges the boundaries between commercial object and conceptual artwork, creating a mode of dissemination that is both personal and public.
By existing in the space between commodity and artwork, the project highlights how language and ideas circulate beyond institutional frameworks, embedding themselves in daily life. As these items are worn, the fragmented statement continues to move through different contexts, subtly infiltrating and disrupting the visual and political landscape of the everyday. The work calls attention to the contradictions of capitalism and cultural production, questioning how artistic expression can serve as a form of resistance while being absorbed into market structures.
The proceeds from the sales of Against Total Meaning will be distributed to Learning Palestine, an initiative dedicated to education and knowledge-sharing on Palestinian history and struggle, as well as to local communities in Hawai‘i engaged in solidarity work with Palestine. This act of redistribution acknowledges the parallel histories of displacement and resistance that connect Palestine and Hawai‘i, both of which have endured the violence of settler colonialism. Through this project, Khalili not only critiques the mechanisms of commodification and meaning-making but also actively participates in networks of solidarity, reinforcing the interconnectedness of Indigenous struggles worldwide.
