Friday Table
2014
Printed textile, ceramic plates

Friday Table is a restaged Syrian lunch table, which depicts a schematic map of a family whose members have, over time, migrated from Syria. The work reveals intimate family moments contrasted with details of economic and migrant access

Groundplan Drawings
2014-2017 (ongoing)
Scanned and digitally printed drawings

Groundplan Drawings is an ongoing collection of drawings made by Syrian friends and relatives. Forced to leave their homes, when war broke out in Syria in 2011, these contributors currently live in Europe and the United States.

Drawings created and contributed by project participants.

The New World, Episode One
2017
Glass stack installation, HD video, 11 min

The New World, Episode One narrates the travels of Amer and Sana Khaddaj, Lebanese musicians, who sang for the Palestinian Broadcasting Station before migrating to the United States in 1947, where they made their money from singing and performing Arabic songs. Looking at archival material, Foundland investigated how the so-called ‘old country’ and concepts important to the Khaddaj couple appear in their lyrics and poems. Foundland revisited (both physically and virtually) and reimagined Amer and Sana’s locations. Episode One includes the re-enactment of archival song material in a style known as ‘zajal’, from the mountains of Syria and Lebanon. Two singers and a percussionist of Syrian origin who recently relocated to The Netherlands assisted in performing and interpreting the song material.

* The Faris and Yamna Naff Arab-American Collection at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

Comprising both new and existing works, Foundland Collective’s installation investigates narratives of mobility and migration around Syria. Escape Routes and Waiting Rooms (2014) deconstructs the visual language used by news media to portray refugees and the violent realities in the region. An alternative view from a single family perspective, The New World, Episode One (2017) uses  archival material to reframe historical Arab-American migration. The collective’s multi-day workshop from November 17 – 22, The New World, Sharjah Interlude, explores the essential role that Syrian and Middle Eastern immigrants have played in Sharjah’s hospitality and culinary scene.

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