“I AM NOT FROM EAST OR WEST… MY PLACE IS PLACELESS” Series, 2018, was created upon my return from Kurdistan / Iraq in October 2016 to February 2017, where I lived and worked with differing refugee camps. Here I encountered refugees from a diversity of backgrounds (Yazidi, Christian, Shabak, Sunni, Kurd, Arab, Syrian and other minorities) where I was drawn to their daily living conditions. This project thus invokes the idea of “Home” as fragments, emphasising what may be absent, lost or left behind somewhere. I was struck by their meagre belongings, their stories told through tears, all of which highlights their collective desperation and fragility, but I also wanted to highlight their courage and compassion. This video reveals the near-permanent temporality of their camp environment, their ‘Home’, where their daily lives are a normalized transit zone.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding, and advisory body.