Artist’s Statement | 2024
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I am a visual artist, and my work focuses on video, performance, digital media, and sound art. Over the past few years, my artistic practice has become deeply intertwined with my personal narrative and biography as a young Arab woman who speaks three languages (after suffering from a speech delay as a child). Interestingly, I feel most comfortable in a language that is not considered my mother tongue.

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My former artworks have dealt with concepts centered around the idea of “self-individual” research, in correlation with questions regarding my gender identity and concerns about my perpetual legacy in terms of family lineage, as I attempt to break a cycle of generational trauma. My body of work examines the profound impact of language on personal identity, as well as on social and cultural interactions.

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Through personal expression and biographical work, I raise pointed questions about national affiliation, social and political pressures, and similar themes. My approach to art is interdisciplinary; I combine performative elements in my video works with digital images, drawing, and text. This greatly enriches my artistic statement and enhances the viewer's experience of my work.

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In my works, there is an inclination towards sophistry and playfulness that seeks absurdism, while still conveying a firm message. Although most of my artistic practice tends to be fast-paced, I believe speed is an essential element in today’s consumer culture, especially given the overstimulation experienced by my generation and how they “absorb” visual art. I handle my work in a manner that mirrors my approach to situations in daily life. However, a noticeable contrast exists, marked by a distinctly childlike demeanor, as I maintain a reserved stance, observing and silently navigating unpleasant situations before transforming my concealed intentions into a visual language.

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There is a game-like attitude in my stubborn insistence on using English throughout my career. This stance acts as a reaction against opinions on what I should or shouldn’t do as an individual and artist from a specific ethnic group. My language is already in the process of disappearing due to the socio-political dysfunction and the irony of the Westernization/Americanization overtaking the lifestyle of my generation and the ones to come. In my works, I also question and critique social tokenization and the fetishization of language mixing, highlighting the complexities and tensions these phenomena introduce.

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In my recent projects, I recollect memories from my childhood when I was criticized for my inefficient control over the Arabic language and labeled as a “traitor.” My ability to represent complex psychological and social dynamics in visual and narrative ways sets me apart in the local art scene. I find my work engrossing, entertaining, thought-provoking, and serious all at once.
 

Artist Statement | 2023

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I’m a visual artist and my works focus in video, performance, digital media and sound art.

Formerly, my artworks have been dealing with concepts that centered around the idea of “self-individual” research in correlation with questions regarding my gender identity or my concerns for my perpetual legacy in terms of family lineage and attempting to break a cycle of generational trauma. I approach my works through video essays that contain a playful visual language that could be categorized nowadays under Internet-core aesthetic/mannerism.

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In my works there’s an attention or inclination for sophistry. Playfulness that seeks for (intended) absurdism, as well as stating a firm message within the visual. Although most of my artistic practice has a tendency to be fast paced, I think speed is an essential element when it comes to consumer culture, especially in today’s generation and how they “absorb” visual art. I approach my work quite similarly to how I would approach situations in my personal daily life. Except there’s a dichotomy and the difference between both aforementioned approaches is being greeted if not accompanied with an acute childlike behavior. In reality, I stay quiet and observe whatever unpleasant situation I find myself put into and seem to be stuck in, and later on would “translate” my masked intentions into a visual language . There’s a game like attitude with how there’s a stubborn like reaction with me insisting to only use my entire career in the English language as some type of reaction against (literally/legit) anyone who has an opinion regarding what I should and shouldn’t do as an individual and artist from a specific ethnic group whose language is already in the process of disappearing due to the functionality/conflict of the country and also due to the westernization or Americanization that’s taking over within this generation and the forthcoming one's lifestyle as well.

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In my current project, "Aren't you ashamed of yourself?”, I introduce to the viewer to 2 spaces - “the chamber of shame” which is an enclosed and claustrophobic space that includes handwritten graffiti that say “Ana 5ayne” along with a photosensitive audiovisual work that plays a collection of confessions that express moments of shame. Whereas in the other space, the viewer sees 2 video works; “intro to Gibbrios” , “in loving memory of 2nd grade” and a mini series of digital collage posters. In these series of works, I recollect memories from my childhood where I was criticized for having an inefficient control over my Arabic language and being titled as a “traitor” due to that for the following years.

 

Artist Statement | 2022

I’m a visual artist and most of my works contain a visual language that focus in video, performance, sound art and sometimes digital media. Formerly, my works have dealt with concepts such as “self-individual” researching or questions about my gender identity. But recently I have been researching and focusing more on my questions of family lineage and my desire to break the cycle of generational trauma and traditions through video essays that negate that issue and/or ideology… I challenge that concept by treating it as an “artist diary” – I try to document events that occur in my life on a tiny notebook then translate or transform it into a video work that usually contains childish and cynical aspects.
 
In one of the works that I’m currently working on An Interview with Lay(i)la, I host a “fake” interview with my dead paternal grandmother – similarly to how Vogue invites celebrities and asks them questions about themselves. But in my case, I answer questions regarding my relationship with her (my grandma). And in another work Dear Yousef, I read a letter that I wrote to my father as a confrontation to his fantasy over my “destined” adulthood.

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Artist Statement | 2021

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For the past several years, most of my artworks have been focusing on topics that deal with the  concept of “Gender Identity” and/or more precisely “Self-Individual” Researching in terms of its  essence, aesthetic, and content. 

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Originally, my decision-making workflow around my art projects usually occurs throughout tiny  sketches or in other words “thumb-nailing”. And, occasionally, through cross-dressing, in order to  enter myself into a deep zone and feel and understand the characters’ attributes, until I reach or  grasp the visual and conceptual purpose of each piece and then proceed forward.

 

The majority of my works contain a visual language and focus in video, performance, sound and  digital media. It allows me to have full control over the visuals that end up showing in its final  form, and moreover it aids me to exploit its pressure and beauty through self-expression. My  interest in creating artworks was motivated by the unprecedented impact on the viewers and their  reaction towards my works (especially in video works). Video acts as a form of weapon that lures  the audience, but more importantly due to its remarkably short period of time- which is normally  how I approach my video works- it casts a “slap to the face” kind of element, and it inspires me to  challenge and create further similar content but with variable gestures by engaging my works  with childish-like aspects as well as “internet-core” visual aesthetics.

 

In my current project, I am doing research on my twin brothers. I was part of a triplet bundle  but due to an emergency delivery I was born as a premature infant without my twin brothers – leaving me all alone and having to fill in their identities by being the “survivor” and having to  hold the burden of their death whilst it played a huge role on my enquiries towards my gender  identity due to the disappointment of the family members not receiving their “destined” male  children who will take care and be in charge of the household. I pay homage to my brothers  through the art world by re-birthing them into satirical characters who also happen to be my alter  egos inside of a simulated or virtual game. I interact with them through a video format (that plays  on loop) and accept their death by leaving them a final message.

 

I also confront the traditional Arab society’s ridiculous and old-fashioned standards over the  importance of a household owning a male child which leaves the females of the house  unacknowledged and treated as some sort of dishonor on behalf of the society, especially if they  cannot birth one either. In one of the videos, I interview my father and interrogate him on this  matter. While in the other video, I address the trauma that my mother had to go through by the  thought of “failing” to birth healthy male children safely throughout a short monologue.

 

The 3-video works - Dearest Brothers, Abu Layana, and 1/3(one third),  are installed together in a room as a collective presentation. The videos are  displayed and synchronized after the other as a response to one another, while each video holds  an “easter-egg” that hints at the other videos.