The Street Where You Live
This installation was the culmination of a year-long residency at the Lawrence Arts Center in Lawrence, KS from 2009-2010.
Statement
I am fascinated with the duality of the screen; it simultaneously conceals and reveals, protects and tantalizes. It divides space and unites it. My exploration is rooted in the institution of veiling in Islamic society. I draw connections to the relationship of the sexes in the West as well as the East. I hope to reveal the intersection of eroticism, the sacred, containment, and desire.
The title “The Street Where You Live” alludes in part to a song from “My Fair Lady” that to me is remarkable for its romanticism and underlying darkness. We each view the world through the veil of our fantasies, which are shaped by our culture, background, and personal experience. The street acting simultaneously as divider and connector, the two-way street, are ideas that are embodied by the screen. The screen in this installation is a physical manifestation of the divide between us.
A screen blurs the boundary between public and private, transforming the space, person, or object on the other side. Tension is heightened through separation and visibility. Objects and space become eroticized. By highlighting the fragility and permeability of dividers I question our often self-imposed restrictions of openness, protection and vulnerability. I invite you to reexamine ideas of what is familiar and what is foreign, beginning perhaps, on the street where you live.
