Please, Don’t look at the moon! 

Installation 
Sound, paper cuts, metal, threads, archival material
2021
Ongoing

                                                                                   Produced with the support of Warehouse421 and the French Institute in Alexandria.

Please, Don’t Look At The Moon is an anthology of drawings, songs, texts, and archival findings that culminates in more than a form; a text, sound installation, and a publication .The project focuses on the audio, verbal and visual culture that discusses issues related to women, children, society, and their interconnectedness. These invisible utterances circulate within contexts of knowledge dissemination like homes, schools, museums. The project, therefore, questions how these archives can subconsciously deepen beliefs and control behavior towards issues like gender, power, hierarchies, violence,
authority, power, racism, etc. It focuses on collaboration with women sharing their own local archives.


The project focuses on the invisible and indirect common knowledge passed within the framework of popular culture -specially tailored to women and children. Hence, I want to keep looking into the aesthetics of utterance found in these spaces which stems up from folkloric and popular proverbs that are found in myths, legends, stories, toys, and songs. The project’s point of entry is shedding light on how these archives can subconsciously deepen beliefs and control our collective behavior towards issues like gender, power, hierarchies, violence, authority, power, racism, etc. These archives- that are strongly rooted -  hold a catalog of explanations that shows how these utterances reflect on our behavior and attitude towards political and social stances.

Second movement: Birds watching

Video
5:26 mins
HD
2020

Commissioned by BOZAR - Center of Fine Arts in Brussels

“Second movement: Birds watching” a video that takes the decision to ban “Mahraganat” music- a type of singing and music that mixes techno and folk music that appeared recently in Egypt -  under the accusation of "spoiling the public taste” as a point of departure that reflects the relation of power and authority with art. The video tries to engage western classical music in conversation with the music and lyrics of Mahragant music. Attempting to break boundaries and rules being put on recent contemporary metamorphosis while introducing a state of reconciliation and homogenization. 


The work questions the role of entities such as syndicates and media channels in the dispute to extend influence and impose control. Music emerging from marginalized and poor social classes -vernacular and deeply rooted from its context- that own its special performative dancing was able to go beyond and find their audience outside the censorship established by those parties.

The video includes found footage that presents two narratives; one represents the state of merging between Beethoven and Mahraganat and the other is the narrative of official authorities.

Diaries books
Text and ink on paper
14*10 cm/ 14*21 cm
2020

Commissioned by Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center in Ramallah as part of "Artist At Work" exhibition which can be viewed here 

Conversations in a Beehive  is a project interested in the status of domestic labor that exists as invisible, unpaid, and unequally distributed work within household structures. It approaches the discourse around the social perception of domestic work and the recognition of domestic spaces as sites of labor. Not only does one exert considerable amounts of physical effort on a daily basis but it also extends to include substantial mental and emotional effort/drill. Both of which consume a lot of time and energy affecting the productivity of women.

The research takes the working middle-class family as a case study to position the domestic establishment within the wider economic context that is constituted by capitalism. The structure, dynamics, and roles of the family members act as the key aspects in shaping the project. While the artist questions the definition of ‘labor ’if it is known as how much time is worth and can be compensated by money, then how it is being spent and valued in the context of domestic chores and the art field.

The project takes the diaries of a mother artist as a starting point. It includes to-do lists, sketches, dialogues, and conversations between family members, friends and relatives even with her child which reflects a collective learning methodology of bottom-up-knowledge. Through writing personal texts as diary entries that are based on actual conversations, discussing the value and position of different members of the family through different approaches and perspectives.