Instead of focusing on what is often lost in translation, I sift through the different shapes and symbols that are found when one is living between clashing cultures, languages, and materials. My expansive studio practice involves gathering and repurposing artifacts from my community—such as worn Kurdish dresses, fabric, and used rugs—to investigate the politics of display, painting, fashion, and borders. I paint, cut, screen print, and sew on these materials to create discrete objects and larger, immersive installations that reflect and explore conditions of assimilation, colonial amnesia, and the fragmented state of diasporic living. There is a sense of history, place, and loss in the way elements of the body are presented in my work. The use and reuse of textiles evoke how they might have looked on a person; how they would have danced or even moved in them. My work is an attempt at locating the space between a love song and a protest song.