Family Album, 1991-2
Dimensions:
Approximately 8fx12f arrangement of furniture
Media:
Furniture; artist books, collaged rug made from linoleum, photocopies, and newspaper clippings.
Description:
Family Album was created during and just after the 1991 Gulf War to examine and communicate the complexities of a political situation that was tremendously simplified and dehumanized by the media accounts. As an Iraqi-American-Jew with many relatives in the Middle East, I felt extremely involved in the events that took place. At the same time, my situation here in the United States as a passive spectator of the media coverage gave me an odd sense of detachment. I especially experienced the war through the effect it had on my father, who like most of my relatives, was born and grew up in Baghdad. Through him I knew that there was so much that was left out of the media reports-that places referred to as targets were places people lived, worked, or vacationed-were places of pleasant and painful memories.
The piece consists of two areas where the viewer may sit and read a book. These face each other across a collaged prayer rug made from newspaper clippings, linoleum, and photocopies. One book focuses on my father's reaction to the war. The other book attempts to put current events into a historical perspective by telling the story of my uncle who was executed by the Iraqi government in 1949. The colonial style furniture is recognizable as gAmericanh since this is an American story-of immigration and the distancing, displacement, and confusion about one's identity that can result.
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