Catalogue > At random

Inspired by the Odyssey, based on Homer`s epic poem from Greek Mythology, this work is based on the concept of myth; its position in history and relation to the present and the imaginary. This film was shot in Palestine, where Palestinians under occupation are prohibited from reaching the sea. The continuous presence of the female figure, as a representation of Penelope, unfolds the absence of the hero figure. Through the act of sewing, she is returning to a past memory simultaneously. The past is activated in the imagination, reinforcing through movement its dislocation from its original site. The work attempts to reflect a reality other than the one history offers. Here, myth could be seen as a collective dream and public imagination.

Noor Abed (1988, Jerusalem) is currently a participant at the Whitney Museum Independent Study Studio Program, NY. She holds an MFA in Photography and Media from California Institute of the Arts, Los Angeles, and a BA in Contemporary Visual Art from the International Academy of Art Palestine. Abed uses forms of performance, video/film and installation. Through her lived experience and observations of Palestinian society, Abed became particularly interested in social transformation in relation to the theory of internal colonization. Taking the personal body as a social one, she questions concepts of psychological violence, desire and forms of resistance specifically regarding its movement and occupation of the body.