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Title
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Where Water Meets Light
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Artist(s)
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Mara Ahmed
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Artist Statement
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This collage is a companion to A Winter Vision which was inspired by the Raquette River and Mohawk culture. It extends the reflection on ancestral connections to land and water, turning toward the shores of Gaza and the Mediterranean Sea. The embroidery designs used in this collage symbolize carnations and cloves. Palestinian tatreez patterns carry aesthetic beauty but are also acts of memory, identity, and resistance. Groups of women and children are seen wading and playing in the water. They are silhouetted against the shimmering sea and vast sky, moments of respite (or perhaps memories of better days) during a genocide. When life is shattered by incomprehensible violence, water becomes a refuge and offers some semblance of normalcy. These works are a tribute to indigenous peoples, their organic kinship with the natural world, their stories, communities, art, and resilience.
