ART
Sabah el kheir,
I received your letter, I’m happy to hear from you and your family, yes I’ll bring you some textile, don’t worry!
We’re going to the souk this afternoon, I have a couple dinars to spend and Baa-ji gave me some more. Djeddi is coming with us.
I’m peaceful and I take my time with everything I commit myself to, now, I don’t know where this comes from. Probably, from the fact that nobody stares at us.
I wish you were here, habibi.
Salam.
This is the Beirut Wall, the Wall of Shame, that lasted less than 24 hours, it is for the same reasons of its placement that the cement wall has been removed. It was there to restrain the people, fend off the protestors and stop us from talking. Instead we are using this wall as our medium and canvas to say what we have to say, to intensify and imprint our energy on the same concrete they are using to stop us!
Every Lebanese citizen should be in the streets of Beirut to use this opportunity to criticize our government and tackle the countless issues we have. This is so so important! It is a classless, sect-less, religion-free revolution. Everybody please show solidarity! We don’t want to have a wall permanently tattooed with what we want, we want to see this change on the same streets we live in!
On the mountain, God will save you. Put the pieces back together. - lyrics by foxygen
(after aja monet)
I know the ocean is blue because of the way it reflects light
I know that 60% of the human body is made of water
which can only mean that we all carry oceans inside of us.
I know that the anatomy of a person doesn't define them
I know that softness doesn't equate weakness
and being feminine doesn't mean you're any less.
I know bee colonies have a unique odour recognisable
only to members of that hive.
I know that's what home is like
I know I haven't been there in 3 year
and it could be a couple more before I even consider going.
I know the grass isn't always greener on the other side
but that has never stopped me jumping fences trying to get there.
I know my tongue has been colonised by a language that
didn't bother seeing my native one as anything less than barbaric.
I know I have done little to stop it since.
I know how easy it is to hold on to anger
How I spent 20 years believing I hated my father
only to realise that sometimes forgiveness is the
hardest thing to give away.
I know my heart is the same size as my fist
but I am still trying to figure out if that is a metaphor
for flight or fight.
***
text // noura alzuabi
art // aala sharfi
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ART: REEM GHAMDI
A few months ago I came across the meaning of the aya “Say everyone should work according to the form that they were created in”
It stuck with me. In these paintings I tried studying different types of characters. Sometimes I’d begin with my eyes closed. I’d be making random marks and forms on a sticky note, then I’d open my eyes and use whatever lines and shapes I had, to create a person. Imitating how we were all born with characteristics (forms) and we are to work and live according to them.
