we would be freer, 2023, 9 mins
We would be freer / بنكون اكتر احرار is a short film reflecting on the relationship between native plants and colonized peoples. Through story and knowledge sharing, the film looks at the sumac plant as a medicine, a spice, a dye, and more. Known for its zesty taste and bright colour, different varieties of sumac are found around the world—staghorn sumac is native to parts of Turtle Island and tanner’s sumac to the eastern Mediterranean...click for more.
105 threads, 2023
105 Threads draws on Palestinian embroidery and history to ask questions about belonging, displacement, and erased histories in today’s Toronto. Linked to an imagined archival story, enlarged strands of ‘thread’ spanned concrete slabs in Nathan Phillips Square from July 7-9, 2023.
Palestinian embroidery is a traditional needlework practice that usually illustrates motifs rooted in the land: a row of cypress trees, stalks of wheat, a watermelon vine, and so on. Inspired by the accompanying story of the Khayyat couple, this traditional practice is taken out of its original lands to the concrete of urban space, mirroring the often out-of-place experience of migrants in Toronto. Read more here.
Suspended, 2022
Suspended looks at the intersection of time, space, and power, inviting viewers to reflect on stagnancy under settler-colonialism.
Like the lighting of candles in prayer, at alters, or in someone’s memory, the work evokes hundreds of hours of hope, waiting, and remembrance. Obscured by the buildup of wax, the figure beneath can be seen as both armchair and throne, summoning both the household patriarch and the political ruler who refuses to give up their seat…click for more.
Unpictured, 2022
Unpictured is a reflection on the fragmented sense of belonging to space and time that emerges from settler-colonialism–a state of suspension where both past and future are denied, or what we call the ongoing Nakba. In Unpictured, I wondered what our salons (the living room in many Arab homes where guests are greeted) would tell future generations about us, but after collecting items from dozens of Palestinian salons, I chose not to show them. Instead, I ground the living room items to scraps until I had obscured all signifiers of when, where, and who we are…click for more.
1/1000th of a Dunam, 2021
1/1000th of a Dunam is a multimedia body of work exploring Palestinian assertions of belonging through the site of soil—an epistemic space where land and belonging are imagined, when in reality they have been denied.
Displaced peoples often collect and cherish soils from their lands of origin, and this practice embodies a knowledge explored in this project. All the soil used was collected in Palestine and takes on new meaning as it…click for more.
the same place and time, 2021
The same place and time is a collection of hundreds of photographs from protests, funerals, vigils and marches in cities and towns across Palestine. Together they reveal a dizzying picture of the cyclical nature of protest, while alluding to the ways that settler-colonialism strips the colonized of both time and space…click for more.
Grieving in private, 2021
Grieving in private is a collection of images of Palestinians grieving pulled from the media. The scenes of families buckled over the body of a loved one at a funeral, or covered in dust and blood in the aftermath of an Israeli air strike, are overlayed with images of Palestinian land. The land serves as a cover, protecting their grief from the invasive gaze of the viewer…click for more.
8.49 million grains of soil, 2020, inkjet on vinyl
8.49 Million Grains of Soil is a series of seemingly quiet landscapes, each speaking multitudes about the planning of land under colonization. The colonial infrastructure that exists and continues to be built in Palestine today is not merely made up of watchtowers, barbed wire, segregated roads, and concrete walls. It is also in the formation of landscapes that appear to be natural, but which disguise the reality of who can move and live freely, and who cannot…click for more.
something from there, 2020, 7 mins
Something from there is a short film on the substance of our original lands. Weaving between the voices of my parents, the film is personal, yet evokes a shared experience. The “something from there” is never named, though it is at the heart of the narrative. Is it a piece of land? The soil? The remains of our ancestors? The distinction between land and body is not made, and rather…click for more.