Raed Yassin Yassin Dynasty, 2013 hand-painted porcelain vase 44 x 21.5 Courtesy Kalfayan Galleries, Athens – Thessaloniki. Raed Yassin's “Yassin Dynasty” consists of a series of porcelain works depicting several battles from the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990) produced in Jingdezhen, the capital of porcelain production in China. The project is derivative from the work “China” (2012) that was made possible with the support of the Abraaj Group Art Prize. The “Yassin Dynasty” works are part-beautiful object, part-historical document, and part-mass-produced product. They echo the ancient tradition of recording victories at battle on vases and ceramics for the sake of posterity, and suggest that countless objects painted by different porcelain masters are being reproduced under the same fictional ‘dynasty’. The battles detailed on the exhibited works are ones that were instrumental for territorial, demographic and political shifts in Lebanon, and their ramifications are still tangible today. The works also embody the image of a Chinese decorative readymade object that could possibly be found in any Lebanese home. This merging between traditional, historical and artisanal elements creates a conceptually complex and multi-layered work.
