Portals To Other Dimensions.
A series of digital drawings metaphorically referencing the divergent pathways many of our students navigate on a daily basis.
Our university is in a unique paradigm—an American art & design university that follows many western ideologies, but embedded within a patriarchal tribal-based family structure and a Sharia law government (although pseudo-liberal). As a design professor and American expatriate residing in the Middle East, I am often privy to stories, concerns and discourse shared with me by students, especially female, who become shapeshifters to manage distinctly different lives between the university and home.
Many of our students are burdened, to varying degrees, by the collision of antiquated cultural expectations and values enforced by family, and progressive aspirations fueled by new opportunity and a desire to be independent. In order to balance this duality, students (citizens) have discovered ways to lead alternative realities as they traverse portals to other dimensions.
Although there is an awareness of these topics across the spectrum of society, bringing it to light through critical analysis can be difficult, or even threatening. This work is not an attack on those values of systems, but a way to initiate discussion using an abstract visual framework.
︎ select image to enlarge
Although there is an awareness of these topics across the spectrum of society, bringing it to light through critical analysis can be difficult, or even threatening. This work is not an attack on those values of systems, but a way to initiate discussion using an abstract visual framework.
︎ select image to enlarge
