FOAM 2007-2008 Video installation, including four videos.How to represent a fundamentalist? I explore this question by having four young boys shaving the foam off of black balloons. In Iraq, boys hoping to become barbers practice on balloons to learn the trade. I was anxiously waiting to see what would happen to the balloons as they were being shaved, or “interfered with”. Like in real life, most of the balloons reacted by blowing themselves up.

TASTY 2008 Video installation, including two videos and cardboard.In this work, as in most works in this exhibition, I am investigating symbols and how they affect our daily lives.The question at the base of this piece is about the relationship between the inside and outside. I built a mosque made of sugar-cubes and placed it next to an anthill. The ants naturally became attracted by the mosque, and began wandering around it, climbing on its walls, breaking in. The question arises whether they were attracted to the mosque out of ritualistic impulses or out of a baser imperative to build or demolish.

CAUTION 2005-2008 Video installation including five videos. Chicken, cows, sheep, human beings and toysI have collected this footage from different sources since 2005, and included parts of it in every one of my exhibitions since. I wasn’t sure what connected the different sequences to each other, until, during an argument about politics with a friend, we both decided that the only thing we could agree upon was the fact that, at some point or another, we all are for sale. Humans and animals alike are always on display, just like toys.

I’M SORRY 2008 Sound installation including a light box. During a recent trip to the US, I met many people from different kinds of educational and social backgrounds. Yet, surprisingly, they all reacted in the same way when I mentioned that I was Iraqi.

The production was supported by AVEK and the Finnish Cultural Foundation.  

Check out the exhibition's webpage for more info!