WW14: Root System

Heritage continues to take root in the soil and will always be remembered, no matter where we are.

As a first-generation displaced Palestinian, the sculptural dresses reflect the experience of carrying identity, memory, and ancestral connection. Like root systems adapting to different environments, they speak to the resilience of diaspora communities who remain deeply connected to their cultural roots despite displacement from their homeland. The work is grounded in the idea that the land is always within you, carried through memory, tradition, and inherited practices such as tatreez and folk music.

Created as an homage to past, present, and future generations of women, the sculptural forms honor the passing of cultural knowledge from grandmother to mother to daughter to granddaughter. Installed in nature, the dresses become part of a larger root system, connected through shared histories, memory, and intergenerational knowledge.

Like roots spreading beneath the surface, these connections continue to grow and sustain identity across distance, time, and place.

The generational series of reinterpreted sculptural dresses explores resilience, cultural memory, and identity through the exaggerated form of the Palestinian thobe, a traditional dress featuring distinctive tatreez cross-stitch embroidery that tells the wearer’s story and reflects regional cultural identity and land through its patterns and motifs. The project transforms painted canvases into large-scale sculptural dress forms designed for the outdoor landscape.

Inspired by the colors of nature, layered abstract surfaces are created on canvas using paint, texture, and mixed media. Layered within these compositions are Palestinian tatreez motifs (cross-stitch embroidery), such as the Cyprus tree, olive branches, and the tree of life, all symbols that carry connections to ancestry, place, and cultural continuity.

Though not wearable, the sculptural dresses honor the women of past, present, and future generations who carry Palestinian culture and traditions forward. The works speak to the resilience of remaining rooted in identity and heritage despite displacement, fragmentation, and distance from homeland.

Through painting, textile, and form, these dresses become a visual language of remembrance, resilience, and the enduring strength of cultural roots.

Cuerpo-Tierra or Earth-Body is an exploration of migration, memory, identity, and community as mediated and nurtured by the diverse geographies that hold us. Humans are not ethereal, floating beings; our souls, minds, and bodies are intimately and inextricably connected to the Earth. Just like our plant kin, we are intertwined with the land beneath us, no matter how often we seem to forget this simple yet powerful truth. Immigrant women, specifically, carry the land-based knowledge of our ancestors and have the potential to re-root and flourish in our new home. Our brown bodies may be rejected by a political system, but Mother Earth welcomes us wherever we arrive, as long as we take the time to recognize her and remember our ancestral ways.

My proposal is to represent a woman who travels below and above the ground, living between two cultures, and carrying her memories like a patchwork of keepsakes. Evident in her rooted body are pieces of the geographies, people, and experiences that create who she is – a symbiosis with the potential to dream and embody a more benevolent future for all women and Mother Earth.

My proposal for the Wildflower Sculpture Park Residency Program, Root System, is to create a modular ceramic sculpture depicting the networks of life within South Mountain Reservation. Exploring specific species that live and keep the reservation’s ecosystem thriving. There is a very delicate balance in nature, if one or more species is removed from the equation the ecosystem at large suffers.  This work will showcase that by having each individual piece that represents a species not be able to stand stably on its own. Once all the pieces are combined the entire sculpture stands solid and stable.  

I have been exploring nature and specifically flora and fauna most of my artistic career; drawing and sculpting animals from all over the world. Recently I have been narrowing my focus to my own backyard. Despite New Jersey being the most densely populated U.S. State, it contains a vast number of diverse ecosystems within its borders. With South Mountain Reservation being right in my backyard it seems the perfect place to begin this new series of work. Not only do I want to highlight the diverse species living amongst us, I want to make sure everyone understands the delicate balance needed for them and their environment to thrive.

General Design of the modular sculpture, consisting of different size cylinders.  That way I can add the surface decoration that will represent the different species in South Mountain Reservation.

Surface decoration options, carving clay away  or adding 3-D lines to create the imagery.

Root and Seed is a two part sculptural installation that explores root systems as both visible structures and as metaphors for evolving and unseen connections. The work will initially present as two distinct forms. The first is a vertical bark like form that climbs and wraps to the bottom of an existing tree while extending into a root like form across the ground. The second an Ovoid form that references a fruit or an egg, which rests nearby, just barely in contact with the roots.

The root and bark structure is constructed from laser cut wood with hand drawn patterns that will be etched onto the surface. The form will appear to trace an imagined network made visible above ground, mapping hidden connections within the preserve. The second form, the fruit/egg  sculpture, will contain an internal laser cut armature patterned with the same hand drawn design as the root and bark. That internal structure will be encased in a temporary outer layer composed of handmade paper, seeds, suet and bees wax. This skin is designed to gradually be consumed by wildlife and weather which allows it to transform over time. As this outer layer erodes, the inner structure will be revealed, visually linking it to the root sculpture.

I would like to use this opportunity and this installation as a way to think about migration and belonging. While the two forms seem separate, they are structurally connected, suggesting the ties to a home that are fundamental even when not visible. As the outer layer of the fruit breaks down this connection becomes clearer. This transformation is meant to show how we adapt to new environments while still carrying histories within.