My artwork explores the liminal spaces and experiences of living in diaspora. Far from home, my work often examines the ideas and emotions of what “home” means for someone in displacement. I reflect on my family’s history of becoming refugees and then immigrating to the United States. Throughout my artwork, I explore the influences that this experience has had on our identities, memories, and family. With delicate thread, I embroider images of womanhood and sisterhood in displaced immigrant communities. I try to present the complex tensions of belonging while creating space for those facing perpetual exclusion. I continue a process that comes from generations of women storytellers and survivors of oppression. For my ancestors, fibers and threads were tools of survival and most importantly, a way to communicate and share their stories and dreams. I use old photographs that my family left behind while fleeing their homes. Gradually, I’ve managed to collect these photos from all over the world. Some are collected from family friends, displaced in other countries, while others come from family members back in Kurdistan. Using these images, I portray to the viewer a sight that might not be familiar. Through my work, I display an immigrant’s experience, one that comes from the dark consequences of imperialism and colonialism. By employing strong notions of family and sisterhood, I am trying to show how this is a collective experience that is often forgotten.
|