WE WERE ONCE ONE (2016)

This artwork focuses on Palestine - specifically the UNESCO World Heritage site: Tell es-Sultan. Sometimes called the oldest town on earth, Tell es-Sultan represents an important exchange of human values during the Neolithic period. Tell es-Sultan represents a place that was a template for urban architecture and construction technologies. Visitors from other lands would come and study their construction techniques and thus network across cultures. It is exactly this loss of exchange due to the current political landscape in Palestine that I wanted to examine in this installation. My installation invokes what could be, if walls weren't being built to divide and separate nations.

This installation is comprised of three elements: one graphic, one sculptural, and one drawn. A topographic map of Palestine is printed on vinyl and cut out with a CNC router. This map sits on the wall visually weighing down the installation, thereby representing our own country's influence in our own Palestine's politics. A place marker points to the location of the historic site Tell es-Sultan. Behind the map is a drawing in red of the ancient site of Tell es-Sultan as it exists today mixed with how it could've looked in the past. This map is surrounded by the flags of the present day countries that traded with and travelled through Tell es-Sultan. Combining these three elements, representing the old and the new of Palestine, I hope to open a dialog about what we are losing when we shut ourselves off from our neighbors.