Exhibitions

This series represents Haidar's endeavour to combat desensitisation to the harsh realities experienced in Palestine, translating digital forms into tangible traces. Departing from her interactions with the online community and visual media flowing from Palestinians in Gaza, Haidar encountered individuals expressing discomfort with the frequency of traumatising material being shared. Some viewed it as a deliberate attempt to infiltrate their minds and visual imagination, possibly to prevent them from mentally escaping. Haidar remediates the narratives invested in these images and confronts her audience with them in a new form, text stitched into paper. One work reads: “A surgeon breaks down as he is about to amputate his daughter’s leg without anaesthetic. His daughter lies on the kitchen table terrified and in pain.” Through this approach, Haidar overrides the reader's ability to detach from the situation; once they begin reading, they are unable to turn away from the harsh reality unfolding on the ground in Palestine.