I am not here/here I am. 2005
Three original ID cards, three wooden shelves, 6 white gloves, curtains, white fluorescent lights, three Arabic/English texts.
Installation shots Townhouse gallery, cairo, 2005.
I am not here, here I am is a personal analysis of the form of the I.D as the key official document one automatically sticks into their pocket without much thought as to how it constructs, narrates and situates individual identity within the larger social narrative and official discourse. This document reproduces and represents the self within a reductive frame of reference mediated through the use of language and visual representation (the photograph), the same mediums (linguistic & photographic) that are used to present this work. This autobiographical project investigates mechanisms of identity formation and self representation by outlining processes of rediscovering, re-understanding and redefining the self. Its narrative form will remain as a memento of this time period and all that came with it: an intense curiosity and desire to analyze and understand the self within the official discourse.
