Khaled Sabsabi: Thank You Very Much (2006) and You (2007)

Let us start with the work, as they always tell us to do in art history. Well, there are apparently two of them that got Khaled Sabsabi cancelled as Australia’s representative to the 2026 Venice Biennale: You (2007), the one Creative Australia were aware of, and Thank You Very Much (2006), the one they apparently were not. Let us start with You, which is often described as an “image,” although it’s actually a ten-minute video. It depicts Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah giving a speech to a crowd with the sound gradually getting out of synch, and as we watch the projector’s light appears to burn a hole in the frame, eventually dissolving the image.