(Still) Life

(Still) Life is a collaboration with the Syrian Oral History Archive (SOHA) and is based on archival recordings documenting stories told by Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

“I leave jasmine in the vase; I leave my young heart in my mother’s cupboard; I leave my dream, laughing, in water; I leave the dawn in the honey of the figs; I leave my day and my yesterday in the passage to the square of the Orange where doves fly.” — Mahmoud Darwish

(Still) Life showcases the power of female voices in times of war— voices filled with sorrow and longing, but also gentleness, sensuality, and often humor. I chose to use stories told exclusively by women because their voices are often overlooked in the general discourse on refugee issues. Exploring themes of time and nostalgia, fleeting pleasures, transience, and the fragility of life, through the use of symbolic elements, colors, materials, textures, and forms, (Still) Life captures the ephemeral atmosphere of selected narratives and freezes it in time. In (Still) Life, the presence of the storytellers is emphasized by their absence—by completely eliminating the figures from the photographs, the stories become universal, allowing the viewer to emotionally identify with the content of the scenes. In times of war, desires, hopes, and dreams still exist. In times of war, there is (still) life.

The project was presented as part of the group exhibitions “En Mal D’Archive” at STATION Gallery in Beirut and “Next Stop: Damascus” at Kulturhuset in Oslo.