Artist Statement

I was born in Lebanon and grew up under military occupation, war, and terrorist attacks. It was only with my family’s departure in 2014 that we escaped decades of acute and shocking episodic violence. My displacement and immigration to the USA created further interior schisms. These themes take physical shape in the studio through art-making as a mode of resistance. I activate the human presence/absence in my work to examine bridging past, present, and future belonging. I explore the poetic potentialities and mutual existence of oil paint, construction materials, personal clothing items, luggage, etc., evoking embedded patterns of trauma in the conscious and subconscious mind. My work alludes to memories, perception, and lingering feelings along with questioning where and when, if ever, the tether of home can be reattached.