The Wars That Ripen Us, 2021

Metal and belly dancing belt coins, 4 in x 18 in  x 22 in

With this noisy, floppy sunhat made of metal, I create an vessel for radical futurism. I imagine a future of rest and joy for the oppressed (lounging with a big sunhat), but the hat is made of metal, a nod to armor. The weight of the metal is a reminder of the violence that has been and is endured by marginalized people.

On top of the hat rest the words of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish who writes in, In the Presence of Absence, “Do not regret the war that ripened you just as August ripens pomegranates on the slopes of stolen mountains.” The first part of the line, “do not regret the war that ripened you,” is bended out of metal in Arabic in a fluid, gestural fashion and welded onto the hat.

This piece is a nod to my own past — the war that ripened me. As I navigate the difficulties of accepting my intersectional identities, I remind myself this very experience ripens me to imagine futures free of oppression.

This is an object joy and celebration that is meant to be worn and the coins make noise as you move your head. Though the piece is wearable, it is not functional. The empty space between the rings provide no actual protection form the sun, preserving it as an object of celebration over function.