First-Year Curriculum
My project,
Collision of Contrasts
, is an exploration of the anxiety and loneliness that I experienced after moving to a new city. The plastic pipe installation, Urut, features a composition consisting of sound recordings that I made in various parts of the city. The composition is both a dialogue and a collision between the serene sounds of nature, which ease my anxiety, and the harsh sounds of the city, which induce it. The installation
Table for One
is a portrait of my classmate Naiya Jaradat in which I explore her connectedness to and disconnectedness from Jordanian and Emirati culture (Naiya is a Jordanian who was raised in the UAE). Moving to Paris only added to the cultural confusion Naiya experienced. This cultural confusion is conveyed in the piece through the use of Toile de Jouy, a French fabric, in a table setting placed on the floor, in the traditional Jordanian manner, representing the fusion of the two cultures. The piece explores loneliness, belonging, and cultural identity, concepts that often become ambiguous for someone faced with a new environment and the process of acculturation.