Statement

My work investigates the underlying structures that shape identity and ideology. These structures are often formed out of an accumulation of contrasting thought-processes, such as internalized colonial assimilation vs traditional idealism, geopolitical and religious polarizing dogmas, and inherited systemic oppression. These ideologies manifest themselves as conflictions in shaping cultural and individual identities and are the focal points of my current practice. The points of connections where these phenomenological structures of thought-form are where my interests lay, revealing the perception lines that form perspectives. I create objects where oppositions can be defined, where extreme concepts can logically intersect to produce a whole. Objects that emerge from in-between spaces to unfold the hidden, concealed part of a construct.

Growing up in the Middle East, then observing extreme ideologies rising around the world and forming divisions in societies and identities had a significant influence on my practice. I use the intersections of extreme structures of thought to uncover and illuminate what can be created in between. Concealment and revealment, covering and uncovering, are not contrasts but are dialectics of intersectionality where new realities emerge. Only through deconstructing the conditions of perception can we reach new realities.

In my practice, I make sculptures, object-based installations, video art, and photography to find where structural elements hide underneath the object's surface. I make casts out of fabric and plaster over my body to conceal it, then reinterpret my cast body to reveal patterns that define it. Another series goes beyond the object, using liquids and lights to reveal fluid forms mixing and erasing each other. Moving images seen through reflection and projection removed from the object that creates them.