"Transference"

ATHR, 5TH EDITION OF 21,39 

"…And The Clocks Were Striking Thirteen " exhibition

Jeddah, February 2018

Clay, Earthenware

192x336 cm

… "the transference, which, whether affectionate or hostile, seemed in every case to constitute the greatest threat to the treatment, becomes its best tool"

Freud, S.

Today, 27 years after the Lebanese war stopped, many unresolved issues remain present. I am one of the lucky survivors. However I carry, buried deep inside of me, a feeling of loss.

In the same way that the death of a close friend’s parent can trigger one’s tears and grief over one’s own personal loss, by transference, the Syrian conflict has unleashed my feelings and my desire to express my frustration with the Lebanese war, the Syrian war, and wars in general.

I worked on the “qobqab”, the Syrian sabot, as a symbol to represent the absence, the loss. The loss of a culture, of an artisan’s society, of tradition, of a human being, of life.

Traditionally, these slippers are exposed by being hung on shop walls in the souks of Damascus or Aleppo. I chose that same way to exhibit the 144 clay “qobqab” to form a “memorial wall”, reminding us that wars never end with winners but only with victims.