Where There Is Much Light, The Shadow Is Deep 2022

“Where There Is Much Light, The Shadow Is Deep”  This saying by the German philosopher Goethe serves as the starting point for this work, which reflects on attachment: attachment to an image, an idea, or the gaze of another that keeps parts of ourselves in the shadows. The salon represents one manifestation of this attachment. It is a space often designed for others more than for its inhabitants. It is rarely experienced in the details of everyday life, yet it carries the weight of representation and the desire to appear perfect. Over time, dust settles on objects that resemble us and those that do not, transforming the salon into a place where memory intersects with social performance, and where identity is continuously reshaped.In this project, I use light, shadow, and material as elements that simultaneously reveal and conceal, constructing spaces inspired by salons drawn from my personal memory. I do not recreate these places as they once were; instead, I reshape them into vessels for memory and the questions it carries. Through these spaces, I draw on my personal experience to explore my evolving identity as a Palestinian woman. Light becomes a tool of revelation, while shadow holds what remains suspended between memory and oblivion, presence and absence. Within this tension, the salon transforms into a space where memory, place, and lived experience converge—a site for exploring an identity that resists a single definition and instead remains in a constant state of becoming.