The Others الأخرين
2018
“The Others الأخرين” is a series of mono-relief prints on Japanese Tengucho paper.
This body of work is a continuation from a past series 'Include | Exclude: Explorations of Xenophobia through Printmaking' from 2017.
As an Arab-American, I have come to realize that the majority of U.S. mainstream media provokes and promotes fear towards minorities. Consequently, unable to assimilate into the dominant culture in the U.S., these marginalized individuals and their communities are often categorized as ‘outsiders’, automatically pushing them into the out-group, creating a rift.
I am captivated by groups and the movement of bodies of people. I investigate crowds, clusters, and their formation; how we, the individuals, can make up a group, a community, a population. I am fascinated with how we appear alike when grouped, but when looked at individually, our unique qualities emerge and come to light..
The process of printmaking parallels these ideas and concepts. Multiples can be created from single matrices, but with each impression there are subtle differences in how a surface is hand-inked, pressed, and transferred. The repetition of these forms inevitably points to imperfection and variation, and can speak to broader issues of what it means to be human.