‘Longing and Belonging’

In an increasingly digital world, virtual interactions offer efficiency but often erode the tactile and emotional resonance of face-to-face human connection.

Drawing upon personal memory, this series revisits the artist’s childhood experiences of hospitality, moments in which gestures of welcome, care, and intimacy sowed and
nurtured the seeds of love.

Inspired by an ancient Fatimid text that traces love’s progression from seed to tree, the series of six artworks map parallel stages of hospitality, depicting how acts of welcome evolve into deeper states of longing and belonging.

6a. Mu‘anaqa — The Embrace

“…If that, too, is granted, he longs for embrace and union… Yet despite all this, longing remains as it was; it does not diminish in the least, but rather increases and grows ever
more.”

The final work culminates in Mu‘anaqa — the embrace. The pomegranate, symbol of love and fecundity, represents the fruition of this progression: from the seed of longing to the fruit of belonging. Here, love and shared values ripen into a gravitational bond, creating a vortex of connection that unites guest and host.