Aya Abu Hawash

The concept of belonging always seemed ambiguous to my mind. I was born in a place that’s home to both diasporic and conflicted cultures. This state -of be- ing Palestinian Lebanese- leaves shambles of battles within me, where grasping those battles is a continuous search for a sense of identity and groundness.

My work is personal; it grows from the space between myself and my sur- roundings. My art questions forms of communication; it is largely connected to human psychology, culture, and intimacy. My attention is majorly focused on the vulnerable side of the mind. My Visual language is triggered by what makes us humans and what forms our complexities of emotions. The exposure of vul- nerability within me and others is what I communicate through my artwork. This serves to be a personal matter as it demonstrates a response to the historical narratives of my cultures.

The concept of romantic narrative and love in the Arabian region is obscure and lies within contradictions. My interest in how love is defined and valued in Arab culture, led me to a state of direct confirmation with the topic. I started to unfold the social reality by interacting, recording, and observing the stories and photographs through linking the wars to the political memory and how they influenced individuals' understanding of the concept of romanticism and vulnerability.

I use surrealist collages, photography and digital art as a tool to compose narratives where colors and layers, and the situated symbology depicted in the landscapes become a communication system. A system where the audience engagement is based on the object, idea and the message that addresses the experience, the community, the exile, and the problematic intimacy. Dealing with archives in my work is derived from monochromatic realism, mainly in black and white photographs. The use of purple and blue landscapes as a sym- bol of an ideal place and an exiled utopia of my fabrication.