hookah piece
2016








Hookah piece was the thesis performance for my Master of Fine Arts degree. In it I blow up forty beach balls with smoke inhaled from a hookah and exhaled through my lungs. It took three hours to inflate all the balls, during which time my body turned numb. Too dizzy to stand, I completed the performance (and my thesis speech) lying down. After the action was over I remained in the gallery until my face regained sensation. In retrospect the performance was a grappling between the two experiences I was living: semesters as an MFA student in Southern California while spending breaks abroad working with refugees of the Syrian Civil War in Amman, Jordan.

Hookah piece and the accompanying exhibition ‘فتاة بنية العينين’ took place at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California.

Photos by Julius Tanag.


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