No City is in the City
“There is enough of unconsciousness
to liberate things from their history. And there
is enough of history to liberate unconsciousness
from its ascension. Take me to our early
years—my first girlfriend says. Leave
the windows open for the house sparrow to enter
your dream—I say ... then I awaken, and no city is in
the city. No “here” except “there.” And no there
but here.”
Palestinian poet. “Mahmoud Darwish,”
This installation is an extension of my interspecies research, merging forms reminiscent of Iranian cemetery architecture with newspaper narratives to portray pigeons as urban dwellers and constant human companions. The juxtaposition of the omnipresent, disorderly nature of pigeons against the unseen anonymity of graves examines and questions our coexistence. The title alludes to a poem by Mahmoud Darwish, drawing parallels between resistance and survival. The installation embodies and ponders the cultural and social ramifications of pigeons, drawing from newspaper archives that humanize and animate these birds through personal tales of human affection, their participation in freedom of speech experiments, and their potential future as entities surpassing human efficiency and productivity.
Date: January, 2022
Location: Human Resources Gallery, Los Angeles
Materials: installation, printed newspaper archive, aluminum, dirt, mirror, flower
