ARWA ABOUON 2014
My work results from dynamic interactions between personal reflections on human nature, to meet and see the world as it is, and the multiple perspectives of my own gaze. The attempts to visually translate these specific configurations of subject, time, and place, are usually photographic, but also sometimes integrate video, design or additional installations.
The themes addressed in my works stem directly from my life experience as a female artist living and working between cultures, and yet the aim is to show how a single person's ‘double vision’ can produce images that possess much wider social effects by collapsing racial, cultural and religious borders. In other words, the images, which are seemingly autobiographical in nature, move beyond mere autobiography.
I am also investigating mechanisms at play when learning and acquiring knowledge, and the different shapes that this knowledge takes on as it is transferred from one generation to another. Balancing playful humor, re-appropriation and respectful homage; I always ask questions through images. The Islamic counterpart to these questions and cultural distinctions often make for interesting results as it leads to more discussions/contemplation about identity through faith.
My ultimate aim is to sculpt a finer appreciation of the Islamic culture by shifting the focus from political issues to a poetic celebration of the faith’s foundations. I hope my work is always visually intricate in the subtleties within its voice.
