Family Tree

BACKGROUND

Emerging from an ongoing grieving, the project centres a hybrid creature, part self, part vessel, that stands both as witness and participant to testimonials from my nine Gazan aunts, once born in Palestine.

The work consists of two paintings, three digital portraits and a single-channel animation video with a composed piece by Nicolas Baveire.

The 2 paintings represent the inception of this project, where exploration came from within.

The portraits trace my personal evolution. The video, both visually and sonically weaves my aunts‘ voices sharing their stories, and the creature's state of mind.

YEAR

2023-'25

ROLE

Visual Artist, Designer

COLLABORATORS

Nicolas Baviere (sound)

Left, Cords, Acrylic on Canvas, 61x61cm , 2023
Right, Cords in blue light

Left, Birth, Acrylic on Canvas, 61x46cm, 2023
Right, Birth in blue light

Animation

The animation features written phrases from testimonials from my nine Gazan aunts, spanning 60 years of living under Israeli occupation. In the original testimonials, the narratives grow heavier as the violence intensifies over time.

The creature, a witness and a participant to the testimonials, embodies inherited trauma, but it is also stifled as reality loops. The soundscape is not only a representation of the testimonials, but of the creature's state of mind.

Family Tree, single-channel video, 2025

Digital Portraits

Nostalgia, digital print
Translation: 'Every time I eat an olive, I feel all my family’s pain'

Childhood, digital print "أصلًا بِنرعبو منّا"
Translation: They are terrified of us anyway

Delusion digital print "مش رح أخلي ولادي يعانو زيّي"
Translation: I won’t let my children carry the same pain I did