Uploaded October 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Inspired by National Gallery artworks that were vandalised while on display, Ali Cherri's "If you prick us, do we not bleed?" is a series of mixed media, sculptural installations, considering how histories of trauma can be explored through a response to museum and gallery collections.
Developed during a recent residency at the National Gallery, the artworks respond to five paintings that were vandalised while on display, and how these attacks were perceived and described. Cherri was struck by the public’s emotional response to these attacks, finding that newspaper articles would describe the damages as if they were wounds inflicted on a living being – even referring to the Gallery’s conservators as surgeons.
He also noticed an overwhelming urge to ‘heal’, make good and hide the damage. This personification of artworks, and the suggestion that they can experience distress, is reflected in the exhibition’s title, taken from Shakespeare’s play The Merchant of Venice.
In response, his sculptures recall aspects of each painting, imagining its life following the vandalism. They bring into question what Cherri calls the ‘politics of visibility’; the decisions we make about how, and to what extent, we accept trauma within museums. By translating each damaged work into a series of objects, Cherri’s work highlights, rather than shies away from, the trauma inflicted on them, reminding us that we are never truly the same after experiencing violence.
Originally from Beirut, Lebanon and now based in Paris, Ali Cherri is a Venice Biennale Silver Lion winner. "If you prick us, do we not bleed?" is free to visit until 8 January 2022.
Inspired by National Gallery artworks that were vandalised while on display, Ali Cherri's "If you prick us, do we not bleed?" is a series of mixed media, sculptural installations, considering how histories of trauma can be explored through a response to museum and gallery collections.
Developed during a recent residency at the National Gallery, the artworks respond to five paintings that were vandalised while on display, and how these attacks were perceived and described. Cherri was struck by the public’s emotional response to these attacks, finding that newspaper articles would describe the damages as if they were wounds inflicted on a living being – even referring to the Gallery’s conservators as surgeons.
He also noticed an overwhelming urge to ‘heal’, make good and hide the damage. This personification of artworks, and the suggestion that they can experience distress, is reflected in the exhibition’s title, taken from Shakespeare’s play The Merchant of Venice.
In response, his sculptures recall aspects of each painting, imagining its life following the vandalism. They bring into question what Cherri calls the ‘politics of visibility’; the decisions we make about how, and to what extent, we accept trauma within museums. By translating each damaged work into a series of objects, Cherri’s work highlights, rather than shies away from, the trauma inflicted on them, reminding us that we are never truly the same after experiencing violence.
Originally from Beirut, Lebanon and now based in Paris, Ali Cherri is a Venice Biennale Silver Lion winner. "If you prick us, do we not bleed?" is free to visit until 8 January 2022.
