“Memory’s thread — خيط الذاكرة”

Shebaa — شبعا
40x50cm, mixed media on canvas.

I started this piece a while ago. It remained at the stage of painting for a couple months before I knew which way I wanted it to go to be honest. It is part of a bigger body of work I have been developing for almost a year, titled “خيط الذاكرة" which translates to “memory’s thread”. It is a collection of personal and collective archives turned into storytelling through visual and written work. My beautiful village, Shebaa, has been taken hostage by the Occupation, handed over to them by the Lebanese government, and is now part of “the yellow line”. I decided to attribute this frame symbols of what sheb3awi, jnoubi Lebanese and falla7i Palestinian life is. The red and white kuffiyah, worn by most people in villages, the Tatreez which has been carried and passed down from generations of women to generations of women… Everything that is supposed to be and remain rooted within the past, the present and the future of the land.

Olive tree and thyme patterns from @shereen.quttaineh’s forbidden plants of Palestine. Last time i was home, harvest season was interrupted by the enemy’s poisoning of the soil making it impossible for us to harvest what had been planted.

Pomegranate tree pattern by @falasteeniya which brought me back to khalto’s persistent pomegranate tree.

Coffee bean pattern found on @tirazain.initiative for all the coffee cups we’ve had with family and community members while wandering around the village.

This is my love letter to home and the homes my grandparents and great grandparents lost.

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