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From the bottom of my heart, I thank you for your sustained engagement in my creative vision, for seeing me, and for supporting me. Over the past several months, I shared with you about my Close to Home exhibition at the Queens Museum one weekly email at a time. Not only was Close to Home my first solo museum exhibition in New York, and with an eight month run – it was also my longest exhibition to date. I’m now on the other side of the world, in Doha, Qatar far away from my original home, New York and it feels almost poetic that a show I felt it necessary to be titled Close to Home has come to an end.
I made a sincere intention to capture the inspired vision that was placed on my heart for the Close to Home exhibition, bi ithni Allah. I stretched myself and accepted a tremendous amount of support from the wonderful people in my personal and professional life. The result was Close to Home – eight months of sustained programming, a collaborative social practice work, and a fully immersive show that shared the depths of who I am (as an Afro-Caribbean American Muslim woman returning to her mother’s land for the first time, wife and mother of three, and former Cairo expat returning to the New York community that raised me) and the richness of what I have to offer from my interdisciplinary and conceptual artistic practice.
Now in Doha, I feel very welcomed to the region with this new feature article about Close to Home written by Adama Munu for the New Arab. I’m sure I’ll have many more reflections to share with you about the artwork I created over the past 2 years as an In Situ Fellow, the Close to Home exhibition that lasted for eight months, and what I’m doing now, so look out for that here and on my blog where I’ll go deep. Until then, enjoy this read in the New Arab about the show, and please share your feedback with me about my Close to Home exhibition. I love to hear how my work connects with you!
