Aya Haidar British-Lebanese, b. 1985
11 3/4 x 11 3/4 in
Further images
Exhibitions
Through the medium of embroidery, Haidar portrays scenes that convey the survivor stories recounted by women in refugee camps during her extensive engagement with displaced communities spanning over two decades. These pieces unfold narratives of loss, grief, resilience, and abuse, portraying these women as inadvertent protagonists thrust into the frontline of their own battles.
In Overboard, 2024, Haidar relays the narrative of Iman, a woman who fled from Syria to Turkey overland, exhausting all her resources to cross the sea in an overcrowded rubber dinghy from Turkey to Greece with her three-month-old baby boy. The baby, unsettled and crying from cold and hunger, wouldn't quieten, and the trafficker ripped him from Iman’s arms and threw him overboard. To them, the infant represented a risk to their entire operation and had to serve as collateral.
It didn't take long for the baby to quieten as he floated away.
Literature
Through the medium of embroidery, Haidar portrays scenes that convey the survivor stories recounted by women in refugee camps during her extensive engagement with displaced communities spanning over two decades. These pieces unfold narratives of loss, grief, resilience, and abuse, portraying these women as inadvertent protagonists thrust into the frontline of their own battles.
In Overboard, 2024, Haidar relays the narrative of Iman, a woman who fled from Syria to Turkey overland, exhausting all her resources to cross the sea in an overcrowded rubber dinghy from Turkey to Greece with her three-month-old baby boy. The baby, unsettled and crying from cold and hunger, wouldn't quieten, and the trafficker ripped him from Iman’s arms and threw him overboard. To them, the infant represented a risk to their entire operation and had to serve as collateral.
It didn't take long for the baby to quieten as he floated away.