Exhibition images

Other people’s stories

Sculptural works for Casa Lü Parque residency

For this show at Casa Lü Parque residency, i made a series of works about the nature of social media and why it has made me so confused and unable to think. The stories that we share and those that we tell ourselves are getting shorter and shorter, mashed together, devoid of context, taking our attention from the present, rewriting histories and shaping the potential of our soft brains.

Casa Lü Parque
Mexico City, Mexico
1.1.2025-19.2.2025

_{I also wrote this short essay to accompany a collection of the condensed instagram stories. more about this on my instagram}

poster and exhibition images

Recognising our incomprehensible acts of savage normality

Sculptural works for ARE Holland residency

The works in this show examine and untangle ordinary objects laden with nuanced meanings and untidy histories. Their supply chains and extensive development backgrounds often ignored or unquestioned. These products or materials are so mundane and neutral that it seems as if they don’t exist. Yet, they didn’t simply appear out of nowhere…

Online and offline, we all participate in trying to summarise the intangible experience of self-aware existence using limited character allowances in non-contextualized spaces. I dream of simple axioms that allow us to find peace and justification for our lives. However, the more I consume, the less it seems that any existence can be pure. Despite this longing for simplicity, it is the complexity of our modern world that makes it so culturally rich. Perhaps it’s time to embrace the confusion and stop searching for definitive answers and purity. Maybe there can be no more axioms, and perhaps that, in itself, is liberating.

ARE Holland
Enschede, Holland
1.5.2023-1.8.2023

Vibramusik

Social music project 

Vibramusik is a collaborative project that turns music into focussed vibrations, opening up new forms of sound and feeling for hearing and non-hearing people alike.
Original music and vibrations were performed on a custom designed and built vibrating dance floor, vibrating furniture and hand held devices. The event took place at KAOS studios. With support and afterparty from King David Soundsystem feat. Balki. The project was founded by Rob Blake and Emin Aksoy and generously funded by the brilliant @draussenstadt

Thanks to everyone that worked on this, particularly engineer @tinkavey and our artists @laureboer @sabiwa.music and @francesco_devincenti_gdsdub

Diese Projekt ist ein Teil der Initiative DRAUSSENSTADT, gefördert von der Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa sowie der Stiftung für Kulturelle Weiterbildung und Kulturberatung. #draussenstadt

@_yolanda_ky

@om_x_oy
@dj_balki
@queena_mode
@mar.tild
@crosscut_designs_berlin
@kingdavidberlin
@kaosberlin
@vibra.musik

Extra Boza exhibition images

EXTRA BOZA

Typographic survey of Tetovo, North Macedonia

I was invited as artist in residence to the diverse and friendly city of Tetovo. While my hosts at LOJA showed me around and we dodged traffic and ate too much baklava, I was soon struck by the colourful typography, competing for attention on the busy streets.

Signs and typography in Tetovo seek to advertise or explain simple ideas; a burek shop, TV repair service, a casino. But the choices implicit in these colourful and diverse styles reflect a complex and multi-layered community. The elegant cursive typefaces of Boutique Street for instance, with its many wedding dress shops, advertising the various matrimonial traditions that are still strong. Or the bold san serif fonts of the travel agents, with their heavy and bright uses of outlined Helvetica, showing the importance of itinerant work. I particularly enjoyed the touches of the middle east in the Qebabtores and Gold shops, I loved the DIY stores with their use of every font on the computer, and the electronics service shops with their ageing signs, still in business despite the rise of disposable electronics.

Through typography we can see the complex relationships and exchanges of the present and their connection to the intricate and tangled history of the Balkans. As a complete outsider with a tourists eye, I saw a wonderfully busy tapestry of cultures, languages, tastes and lifestyles, interconnected, layered and evolving in this unique and cinematic city.

LOJA ( temporary gallery space )
Tetovo, North Macedonia
26.11.2022-27.11.2022

Extra Boza opening night.
Featuring DJ Javed and refreshments by Shazaib and Layla.

Extra project ....

During this time in North Macedonia I was inspired by the local Balkan styles so I bought a fake Nike tracksuit from the Tetovo market. I’m interested in the globalism and the blurry layers of authenticity and meaning that people apply to brands. While having dinner with some friends from Pakistan, I was sewing over the Nike logo and Shazaib wanted to add something. From there I started to ask many people to add a few stitches and soon it became an odd tapestry from people from all over the world.

Thanks to everyone that has added something - if I missed you let me know!

Ajhan idrizi
@javedalam03
@shahzaib_haider97
@la.i.la_k
@shahnoz_ash
@monkeyonaturtle
Mehmet Memo
Maria Chortseva
Antonja Tina
@marinaterpo
Egzona Musliu
Aleksandra Sargjoska
@blerimjasharii
Bujar Luma
Dimce Josifovski
@itoitoitoitoito_
@becky.bbeast
Silas Parry
Erik Putz
Lucia Lavezzari
@maitanemidby
@jainsen_oficial
Esther
Juan Mena @stf.stf.stf
Wayso
Emma
barbie williams Carmen Santesmases Anisia Affek

🇲🇽 🇵🇰 🇹🇯 🇯🇵 🇲🇰 🇦🇱 🇽🇰 🇪🇸🇫🇷 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇳🇱 🇦🇷 🇷🇴 🇩🇴 🇸🇪🇩🇪 🇺🇦

Abu Fatima’s Egg Farm

Katsika’s Refugee Camp

Developing small business

Over the course of 2.5 months I joined with the vital NGO - Habibi.Works. A grass roots and hands-on organisation that operates next to a growing refugee camp in Katsikas, Northern Greece. Habibi.Works provides a makers space and social point that delivers many many great benefits to people that have been through terrible experiences and continue to suffer.
With Habibi.Works I initiated a social project with the aim of developing small business directly with residents from the camp. Here are some selected images of some of the projects and collaborations that happened and are still going on.

press - International Journal of Design 

A chicken coop and fence to house 50 chickens. Abu Fatima and his wife sell and swap the eggs. We made the farm ( and all the projects here ) with a very limited budget, so we had to be creative with finding resources, such as flattening and reusing all this old rusty fencing.

Market Ayman sells a wide variety of things such as sweets, drinks and cleaning products. The local supermarket is a long way to walk to in the Greek sun and closes early. This shop has filled the gap and is also really popular with the kids. 

Abu Munir worked on many of these projects for other people in the camp and is a highly gifted engineer and maker. Together we made a Halal Chicken factory ( very little Halal meat to be found in Greece ) and a shop to sell dairy products that he will make but also items from the market. The cheese is a traditional Syrian cheese homemade by Abud; Abu Munir’s cousin.  

Yahya’s Barbershop was the first business project in the camp. It was open from the first night it was built and quickly became the place to get a haircut in the camp and a hang out spot. You can follow Yahya’s barber shop on Insta at @yahyabarber49

Hussein’s ‘Maison de Pigeon’, houses 15 pigeons. He teaches them to fly patterns in the sky. The mural was done with Amar and Hussein. The target is so they can find the caravan easily from above, because all the containers look so similar. Mortizar’s ‘Afghan Café’ will sell food and drinks directly from his kitchen ( literally ).

‘Café Yasmin’ is run by Yasmin ( Um-Hazim ) and Abu Hazim. The whole family worked together building the cafe and garden. The food Yasmin makes is amazing. Follow them on Insta at @cafe_yasmin_60