GRINDING THE RUINS TO BUILD A FUTURE
Centering grinding as a of digestion, this work processes the destruction we are witnessing around the world as a result of wars. By grinding rubble collected from recent attacks on Lebanon, my homeland, as well as soil, rock and earth from California, we metabolize the concepts of loss, communality and reconstructing home from the from the fragments we collect.
The body of work is in conversation with the work of my father, an engineer collecting rubble in Lebanon, grinding them to sand and dust, proposing them as material to rebuild homes with. It consisted of several workshops inviting diasporic communities to participate in the search, and was exhibited in the MFA Thesis show: Picking up Seashells Amidst the Tsunami, at the Sesnon Gallery, Santa Cruz.
The body of work is in conversation with the work of my father, an engineer collecting rubble in Lebanon, grinding them to sand and dust, proposing them as material to rebuild homes with. It consisted of several workshops inviting diasporic communities to participate in the search, and was exhibited in the MFA Thesis show: Picking up Seashells Amidst the Tsunami, at the Sesnon Gallery, Santa Cruz.
(Above) “Our Bodies build the Shelter” is an installation of sanctuary for the rubble, broken pieces of home, with tiles that form structures of support made on the bodies of participants.
(Below) Ground Circles gathers a circle from diasporic communties from around the world to digest together. Filmed and edited by Tzion Ibrahim Hazan (full film here)