It's been a privilege witnessing the multi-disciplinary artist Rand Abdul Jabbar working in residency with a group of wonderful women from the Iraqi, Syrian and Moroccan diasporas this week at Grand Junction.
Despite the difficulties of meeting in person, everyone involved has found the process very inspiring. This week's residency followed exploratory online conversations earlier on in the summer in which this inter-generational group explored perceptions of place and memory through conversations, writing and drawing.
Taking home as a starting point, the women were asked to select an item of sentimental value that either they or a family member had brought with them to the UK from their country of birth. Using the objects to catalyse memories, the group members began to collect and record the associations they had with each object.
Spending time together this week has allowed the group to dig deeper into their personal histories, and to share and record their stories through mind mapping and tracing networks. Watch this space as the work progresses. This is just the beginning!
Explore reflections and recordings from the residency.
Rand Abdul Jabbar
Rand takes a multi-disciplinary approach to her practice, moving between design, architecture and visual arts. She sets up conversations across the past and the present often borrowing from and reconstructing the ephemera of place, history and memory.
She was born in Bagdad but moved to Abu Dhabi at the age of five and grew up between the UAE and Canada. She is an alum of the Salama bint Hamdan Emerging Artist Fellowship, the Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation's Artist Mentorship Programme, Tashkeel's Tanween Design Programme and took part in the Gulf Designers Workshop conducted in partnership between the Victoria and Albert Music and the British Council.
