2-channel HD video and sound, 7 minutes 58 seconds.

A dual video projection with small monitor with headphones presents a series of performative actions and recitations. A tumultuous multi-layered struggle is at play in this work. This translates into a resistance between the lived body (Merleau-Ponty) and an object that is both material – a blue fabric animated by the wind – and symbolic –of language and the bodies of water.

This artwork aims to express the dualities and friction between cultures and language: my Iraqi  background and western upbringing . The body moves between the two projections portraying two poles that interact, share mutuality, give and take, and at times collide and conflict, suggesting a struggle and a sense of frustration.

The small monitor contains a poem I pieced together drawing from a selection of Iraqi poets who write about concepts of exile, displacement, struggles of war, and dictatorship, what it means to no longer belong to or reside in one’s nation or place of birth. This recitation re-appropriates and contextualizes Iraqi poetry in the form of a collage by using symbolism as a form of expression. The use of symbolic language is commonly found in Iraqi poetry and art as it highlights censorship under dictatorship regimes.