Water Projects

In Withholding Water, water carriers based on amphoras from ancient Palestine and the Middle East are mounted on the wall to reference both a natural history illustration and a Historical/anthropological collection. Tree roots suggesting streams and tributaries run through the vessels alluding to their inability to hold water--metaphors for the physical and psychological uprooting of the Palestinians during the formation of Israel. Cast in pigmented paper pulp/plant matter, the choice of material ties the work to crop irrigation and the effects of water inaccessibility on Palestinian livelihoods. In the words of Adel Yassin, Director-General of Strategic Planning at the Palestinian Water Authority, “The problem is not a shortage of water but the occupation’s control of our water. Water is one of the basics of stability and liberation and any state without water is a state without sovereignty.”