POWER TO SEE BUT NOT BE SEEN
Installation: Fabric cutwork, Video Projection
2019
Drawing on a quote by Fadwa ElGuindi “Who has the power to see, but not be seen?” The metaphor of Mashrabiya, the wooden lattice work on oriel windows featured in Islamic architecture is used to reflect on this question.In the installation, fabric is used to reinterpret Mashrabiya screens, creating portals that negotiate the boundaries between visibility and invisibility through its flexible yet structured form. Projected videos show desert landscapes with rock formations created by vulnerable exposure to weathering while veiled in snow. Along with footage of kaleidoscopic eyes, and a shadow figure wandering in white sands, appearing and disappearing through the landscape, echoing the tension between visibility and invisibility. The same occurs for installation viewers' bodies as they navigate their movement through the installation.
Special thanks to Kialo Winters (Diné of the Ta’neeszhanii, Kinyaa’áanii, Táchii’nii, Honghanii clans) for guiding me through the traditional homelands of the Diné, Pueblo and Jicarilla Apache, also known as the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness in northwest New Mexico. And for sharing with me the importance of this land and its history to indigenous people of the region. Winters remind us that upon encountering this landscape “Witnessing erosion change will be miniscule in our lifetime, but as a visitor, we can always wonder what it will look like thousands of years from now.”