Art has always been the main character in societies and communities. It spoke about class, social issues, political struggles, and more. It existed in every aspect of life, giving people a way to express themselves, especially the oppressed.Art from and for the community is the essence of art, it is the heart of conceptual art.

By utilizing art as a tool for change, each community gets to draw its own path and shape its own way of seeing. People participate in this experimental workshop/artwork/fabric/presentation whatever one may call it. It becomes a sense of community, a sense of togetherness. It brings us back to simpler, easier times like school days or summer camps when we gathered to draw as a shared activity.

Today, we gather again to draw and paint, this time as a form of resistance, a form of presence, a way of being and existing as an open dialogue that spans widely.

This project is dear to my heart. It perfectly represents my message in the art world. I’m not seeking to be displayed in grand exhibitions or museums, I want to be in your exhibition, your space, your home, anywhere that needs art. I want to make everyone part of this journey, from our oldest to our youngest.

After completing this collective painting practice, we hang the work in a place where everyone can reach it using found objects that are familiar to the eye to create a deeper, more relatable scene, a couch, a dinner table, papers, pens, paints, scissors and more. All of it becomes the installition, the artwork we all worked on together.

Look at this fabric. Choose a part. Cut it, and take it with you. That’s where its journey begins to become whatever the viewer decides it will be. For a moment, everyone becomes an artist. Everyone chooses the part that represents them, simply cuts it, and takes it to its new home maybe one day we collectivally can bring these pieces back together and see how far we have come.

From the "From and To" series, this exercise or artwork relies not only on drawing, but on all of our senses. We begin with conversation and the deconstruction of concepts, then move into the act of drawing accompanied by various elements including Palestinian songs that have influenced my artistic practice, and the questions that arise for any of the participants during this experience, opening a dialogue around everything related to art and to me as a Palestinian artist from Jerusalem.

This work was created on an island, in the Re-Connect Offline, The Island Residency/ The Island Lab, in Turkey. During the end of May and beginning of June/2025.

Forever Grateful, forever “from and to” Communities.