Air Cutoff
Ready-made; mixture of gelatin, glycerin & water; video projection
Inside a Syrian shelter in the northern Golan Heights, Abu Saada found a connecting pipe whose original purpose was to filter the air for those inside the shelter. This pipe is the starting point of the work. Abu Saada processes it using a substance she makes herself out of glycerin, gelatin & water. The resulting texture is simultaneously transparent and opaque, and serves as the ground for the projection of a documentary video which she filmed in the same shelter. The work deals with the relationship between searching and acceptance; between darkness and light; between underground and ground surface; the relationship between heaven and earth; between earth and air; between feelings suffocated and being able to breathe. The blending of the material in layers, one atop the other, illustrates the struggle of multiple identities and the lack of identities in the work. The pipe, made to provide airflow, disconnected from its initial purpose and physical location, is reassembled here to enable a different type of breathing- in a distant, urban space, disconnected yet connected, taking us on a journey to discover the country of origin of the work.
