Artist Statement

The work I make focuses on the desperation of humans and the politics of belonging.

Living in post-traumatic, and traumatic places like South Africa and Palestine, the need is to be quieter, more humble and observant without being arrogant. The aim is to combine the exteriors and interiors of the place reflected and incorporated by offering my personal narrative in the work. It attempts at being raw and naked without being directly shocking. Sometimes it is masked in an insecure humor, which is meant to be transparent.

Last summer I went to have kebab and arak with two friends. I looked at us, an Iraqi raised in Canada, a Pakistani raised in the US and myself a half Iranian American, laughed and said, “Well if this isn’t a bit of world peace, the Iraqi, the Pakistani and the Iranian eating a meal in Palestine, then I don’t know what is.”

I am a believer of Noam Chomsky’s theory of every man is an island, but even if we are islands, and alone, we need a purpose, relationships and to feel connected to something or someone.

I like the duality of humans, the exterior of what the world sees and what we really think.