A unique monument honoring an Arab-American figure in the United States is at the center of a new participatory art project. This initiative transforms the longstanding sculpture of a Palestinian-American icon into a dynamic, living artwork.
Located outside the Santa Ana public library is a memorial statue dedicated to Alex Odeh, a Palestinian-American poet, civil rights leader, and scholar who was assassinated in 1985. Algerian-American artist Khalil Bendib created the statue in 1994, depicting Odeh holding a book in one hand and a dove in the other, symbolizing his peace activism.
Over the past three decades, the bronze statue has been vandalized multiple times—splashed with red paint in 1996 and 1997, and the dove was stolen in 2020, though it was recovered and reattached. Most recently, in December, the dove was intentionally removed to keep Odeh’s memory and legacy alive.
Artist Jon Rubin first came across the Odeh statue in spring 2023 during his residency at the Grand Central Art Center (GCAC) in Santa Ana. He noticed remnants of a brick from a recent vandalism and was struck by the hostility towards the memorial, compounded by many people’s unfamiliarity with Odeh’s life and work, as a librarian informed him.
“That combination stayed with me,” Rubin told Hyperallergic. “Here was a monument that was simultaneously being attacked and overlooked: a work that remained politically charged enough to attract repeated acts of vandalism, yet had become somewhat invisible to the public around it.”
With approval from Bendib and Odeh’s eldest daughter Helena, Rubin removed the dove once more, “this time with intention and care,” to create a new participatory artwork called “The Stolen Dove.” Over several months, various individuals and organizations will host the dove for events, dinners, and performances.
“Instead of remaining fixed in a public square, the dove would become a living, decentralized monument, gathering people around Alex [Odeh]’s life and legacy through conversation, hospitality, and shared responsibility,” Rubin explained.
Each participant hosting the dove will receive a replica of the statue, contributing to “a growing flock dispersed across homes and institutions, creating a network of monuments and storytellers.”
Born into a Catholic family in Jifna, Palestine, in 1944, Alex Odeh experienced the Nakba as a child and the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in 1967. He immigrated to the US in 1972, earning a Master’s degree in political science from California State University, Fullerton, where he also taught Arabic and Middle East history. In the early 1980s, he became the West Coast regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), a civil rights organization dedicated to combating anti-Arab stereotypes, discrimination, and hate crimes. Odeh was also committed to promoting dialogue between Muslims, Jews, and Christians.
On October 11, 1985, Odeh died when a pipe bomb exploded at ADC’s Santa Ana office. He was scheduled to speak at a local synagogue later that day. While the FBI and journalists identified members of the Jewish Defense League, a right-wing terrorist group, as possible suspects, no arrests have been made, and the case remains unsolved.
“The Stolen Dove” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January during the screening of the documentary Who Killed Alex Odeh? It then traveled to various events in Southern California, starting with a dinner hosted by Odeh’s daughter Helena and his widow Norma. The dove also visited the home of Julie Kasem, daughter of radio personality Casey Kasem who funded the original statue; artist elin o’Hara slavick’s residence; and a Passover seder held by Rabbi Arnold Rachlis, who spoke at the dedication of Bendib’s sculpture in 1994.
“We passed around the dove, let people hold it. I didn’t realize how powerful that would be, these feelings of despair and hope,” Rachlis told Hyperallergic.
On July 18, the dove will be featured at the 839 house gallery in Hollywood for an evening of music, readings, and food.
Liz Hirsch, co-founder of 839, told Hyperallergic, “The project feels urgent because it brings renewed attention to Odeh’s life and legacy and to the longer history of anti-Arab violence in this country that his assassination has come to symbolize.” She added, “It reminds us that occupation and genocide in Palestine are not just things happening ‘over there,’ but are structurally connected to conditions here in the US and beyond.”
Artist and curator Joshua Oduga will perform ambient musical pieces, including a reworking of Sabreen’s 1994 song “Jayy al-Hamam (جاي الحمام)” (“The Doves Are Coming”), which borrows text from a poem by Palestinian poet Hussein Barghouti. “I’m interested in what happens when the dove becomes sound,” Oduga told Hyperallergic.
There will also be a reading from Odeh’s 1983 book of poems and essays, Whispers in Exile (Hamasat fil Ghurba), newly translated by Emily Drumsta.
Rubin will then take the dove to the Bay Area and later to Pittsburgh, where he resides and teaches. A public event in Santa Ana is also being planned by the GCAC, according to its director, John Spiak. When asked about safety concerns, Spiak stated: “There are always concerns, but Alex was a peace activist, and his life was taken. There’s no security with any project you do.”
The dove is set to rejoin the statue in the fall of 2027, marking the 42nd anniversary of Odeh’s murder. Helena expressed her hope that the dove can visit her father’s hometown of Jifna in Palestine before then.
Rubin envisions that through the Stolen Dove project, house by house, hand by hand, Odeh’s legacy will be revitalized and eventually return to its rightful place outside the Santa Ana library.
“When the dove eventually returns to the monument, hundreds of people will be able to say, ‘I once held that dove,’” Rubin said. “The hope is that the monument returns carrying the memory of all of those encounters, and that the community around it will never see it in quite the same way again.”
