This is a cut out I made which says “Even if the world ends tomorrow, today I shall plant a tree”. This is my own exaggerated take on calligraphy based from my handwriting in arabic. I plan to use this stencil on an exposed screen print, for collaging and as possible backgrounds for future works. I felt the phrase could be used with a number of concepts related to the refugees having to remain optimistic and resilient.
I plan to make more similar stencils, to use for spray painting onto the boxes to build up my collages. For the pieces below I used pieces of thin wood I cut up to drag paint across the paper to create an organic mark, similarly to a method of calligraphy which uses larger, flat and solid tools to write.
I also made beads and stamped letters into small pieces of clay to paint and add onto my collages/sculptures. I used English letters to write phrases or words in both Arabic and English. An aspect of my work that I enjoy; which is that not all can be understood and hopefully leave the viewer with a feeling of unease or curiosity.
“Mannoubia Bouazizi, the mother of Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi, says, “Mohamed suffered a lot. He worked hard. But when he set fire to himself, it wasn’t about his scales being confiscated. It was about his dignity.”
“El Teneen, a prominent Egyptian graffiti artist, wears a homemade gas mask.”
“Ahmed Harara is a Cairo dentist who was blinded in one eye by a rubber bullet during clashes in January. In November, he was shot in his other eye. Now he is completely blind. “As they say in America, power of the people will change everything,” Harara says.”
Z.A.P Art 