Sewing the Room, 2024
Performance. 20 mins, fabric map. 250x150 cm, sewing thread, sewing needle.
This performance is an invitation to engage deeply with
what remains after destruction and to find new meanings and possibilities
within these structures. Sewing
the Room is an experiential performance where I sew my body and the
public's to the very fabric of the room itself. Through this act, I am aiming
to disrupt the social and physical boundaries of the space, inviting the public
to question the impact of social architectural challenges of a space and how
they affect bodily experiences. The performance reaches its climax as I sew my
feet onto a fabric map representing my hometown in East Amman, in a Palestinian
refugee camp. This gesture spatializes my personal experience with social architectural
constraints, extending it beyond its context and transforming it into a tool
for critiquing different physical structures that restrict bodily motion in
other environments. The performance also incorporates a sound projection, beginning with amplified
breaths and ending with soothing lullabies traditionally sung by Arab mothers,
aiming at extending inner bodily experience to the physical space. This sound
piece has been developed as a collaborative work with the Syrian artist Alqumit
Al-Hamad.
The Palestinian refugee camps are the physical
aftermath of ongoing colonial oppression, standing as living ruins of a
continuous catastrophe. The
Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan were established as temporary refuge spaces
in response to the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe) in 1948 and the subsequent
Naksa (setback) in 1967 [1], whereby the Israeli occupation forcibly
uprooted Palestinians from their native land and thousands of the Palestinians
subsequently sought refuge in Jordan [2]. Sewing the Room explores remnants of an architectural and
social order that continues to affect movement and interaction.