Dalia Boukhari was born in 1986 in Kuwait. Having grown up among artists, Dalia began drawing and painting from an early age. She received her education in Graphic Design in Ramallah 2006, Palestine. As a designer Dalia’s practice began in 2004 and has since stretched across the world of design from product design to advertising and to printed matter. She also works with the media of painting and video, exploring both to develop her own visual grammar. Dalia obtained her bachelor degree in contemporary visual art in 2018 from the International Art Academy of Palestine in Ramallah where she lives and works.
No Logic Memory
Video
Based on photographs of Sabra & Shatila massacre, 1982
2016
The work attempts to explore muddled images of memory as a result of collective trauma. The impact of trauma occupies our memory in a complex manner that reveals itself in blurry images, collectively forming the unspoken. According to galaxy logic, summoned elements – such as images, songs, poems etc. – form the luminous dots circulating in the black hole orbit. As we attempt to lock fading images from the past for fear that it may dissolve, An image becomes a luminous dot connected in relation to other dots, collectively revealing the black hole. In other words, collectively revealing the unspoken or the unstated. Tony Seker
Sama
Video
2018
After having many conversations with women of different ages and cultures – with a working woman and a housewife for instance – I was able to shape and come up with the concept of Freedom, the freedom each woman dreams of, searches for identity in, and challenges society for. I was able therefore to build and due to my daughter’s unintentional way of dealing with me, I realized that I had to think about future generations. That is why I decided to update and improve my idea to revolve around my daughter Sama, and the role that was enforced on me as a wife and mom, and became an approach for my life and restricted the freedom that I pursue as a female. All these responsibilities are the tools that affect me and my daughter, as I know no longer seek my freedom but rather the time and freedom for me and my own daughter for the freedom of expression between us. As I believe, in the future Sama will be able to value time, and will mature how to design her own freedom through her own choice and not as society imposes on her and and her lifestyle, as this is what I do on a daily basis with my daughter Sama. This space of freedom that was forced on me as a result of society, or the possibility to draw Sama her own space that I call My daughter’s and my own freedom.
The Man Shadow
Video
2015
The video was made during April and May 2015 in the streets of Ramallah. Ramallah is the central city of the West Bank, usually quite busy and crowded during the day. Women are often seen going off for daily business and routine during the day, but rarely in evenings. At night time you scarcely meet women hanging out alone, they are usually accompanied by a man. This video is part of an experiment to find a solution to this social norm.
Floating bricks
Installation, porthole, foam, clay bricks, paint, light
Commissioned by International Art Academy, Palestine for Cities, exhibition, Birzeit Museum
2016
Light, space, and gravity are major components in this work. The fears and hopes of so many people hang and glide within the constructed floating space. An essence of the ongoing destruction of Gaza and the recurrent planning for its reconstruction. The work is also a lurking future of an ongoing possible destruction hiding behind every wall in Palestine. The audience is invited to look through a porthole at an installation behind the white walls of the gallery space of simulated bricks hanging in vacuum.
