Nasher

Nasher is an installation of suspended 13 canvases that displays a collection of images and true stories from Syria. I created the installation’s idea and title around the double sense that the Arabic word Nasher carries. It makes reference to the act of hanging something outside to dry, often laying clothing on cords and suspending them from balconies. And it also means to publish, as in texts, books, or statements.

To create this installation, I asked many Syrian people of all ages, beliefs and professions, both inside and outside the country, to write a short text explaining a crucial moment they had experienced during the conflict. I collected the stories via calls and emails, and we discussed the content. Then I wrote by hand their offerings on large pieces of fabric, human size (2mx1m each), and sewed the photos alongside the texts. I presented the canvases as laundry, suspended the way we dry our clothing on balconies, and covered with handwritten accounts of lived moments and intimate images sewed into the fabric with red cords. Visitors can walk through different stories, contemplate the fragility of life, and get a strange sense of familiarity with both: the author and the medium. With this installation, I focus on the human beings experiencing the Syrian conflict, who are so often represented as a sheer number in the news. By sharing these stories, expressed in their own words and images, and by using hanging laundry as a familiar concept, I wish to bring these humans’ experiences closer to the public.

I first presented this installation in Montreal at MAI – Montréal Arts Interculturels in 2014; then in Paris during the group exhibition Diasporam’art at Le Carré in 2016; and in London at Manor House Library in 2018. In 2019, this work was published online by Youth Circulations.