I feel everything primarily references the Palestinian folktale Half-a-halfling [Nos Nsais] ㅡa story about an alienated half-child who is born through magicㅡand imagines an invisible spirit half-child who has been annexed from the artist’s native home. The work questions the fundamental essence of the “half-child,” refraining from illustrating the folktale and instead expanding upon it to propose a comfortless existence burdened in fragmental beingness. Inspired by water folklore that teaches a spirited relationship with water sources and their guardiansㅡintertwining water, women, story, community, living and non-living, human and otherㅡa child, mother, animal, water source and spiritㅡall of which help recount a tale that ultimately originates from the unbearable state of “halfness”. I feel everything reweighs water folklore vis-à-vis present-day restrictions on water access and all things embodied therein such as one’s homeland, life source, story, endangered heritage, thereby proposing their reanimation.
