Untitled 4

This work was created in response to poetic texts written by Habibah Sheikh, a nomadic performance artist originally from Lebanon, and the curator of the exhibition, Mitli Mitlak (Like You, Like Me). In the text, a character named Ruba experiences the destruction of war firsthand and becomes a refugee in the process. This work uses the imagery of violence to evoke the emotional and physical vulnerability of certain Mediterranean themes...such as being without asylum.

Act 1, Scene 4, Mitli Mitlak (Like You, Like Me):

The child makes a sound. The refugees discover that the child is hiding.
The refugees surround the child,
Who does not respond… seems to be mute.
Ismail: Who are you?!
Hyatt: What?! Don't you know how to talk!?
Djuna: Thats alright. Leave the child alone.
Ismail: What is it, a girl or a boy?
Djuna: Whats your name?

Djuna: We ran away from home too. We are refugees. All our families have died.
Ismail: Im not a kidnapper! I'm a dentist.
Hyatt: See his dentist bag? This is the tool he uses to pull out teeth. Open your mouth, lets
play.


Within Inner landscapes there is urgency. In the heart, a child. There is a wound. Clouded shades reveal either a great white light or a suspension without gravity. In this series of paintings, Mejri has the infant's quality in an uninhibited flow. Childlike drawings are of the outside ruling body, beaming an image onto the territory, becoming the body of the people, through apparatuses of state control.