sincerely, America
2017

Statement of performance:

I offer my body as a surface to write on. Pen something you want to send to someone who has lost their home (‘a refugee’). For every hour of this show my skin is available. At the end of the exhibition a message will be made permanent in exactly the place and way you wrote it.

I was involved with refugee assistance from 2012 to 2019, developing projects in California and Jordan to unite aid with art. The paint on the desk for this piece is mixed with sand from Za'atari, the large Syrian refugee camp in Jordan. Experiencing the disconnect between these places inspired the work, in which my body is a vessel for words.

The two chosen messages are in Arabic:

حب (love)

نحن والقمر جيران (We and the moon are neighbors)

Sincerely, America was part of ‘Irrational Exhibitions 10: Mapping the Divide’ at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions in Los Angeles, California.


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