Uninhibited: People of the Earth - الغير مقيدون: أهل الأرض

Multimedia

2022 - Ongoing Research and Body of works

Uninhibited: People of the Earth is an ongoing body of work which includes photography, fiber tapestries, performance video, a soundscape, reconstructed instrument installations, and live performance. This body of work is centered around a fading practice in the Arabian Peninsula/Kuwait originated from East Africa named Zar. A healing ritual that was historically utilized by oppressed and socially isolated groups of women to cope with anxiety and stressors of societal shifts in pre and post-oil era. Through archives, oral stories, merged with my professional occupation in clinical/communal art therapy and trauma recovery, I uncover personal memories of these ritualistic practices in my own lineage allowing me to deepen my understanding of this ancient ritual's psychological underpinnings compared to modern medicine. 

This body of work Uninhibited: People of The Earth re-imagines Zar music/dance in a way. Drawing from Zar the wisdoms of ritualizing feelings and grief so they can move quicker through us without causing uncomfortable internal distortions and as a tool to reactivate a sense of agency in the body. Through this body of work, I am thinking through, learning, and sharing along my findings of how Zar is an indigenous practice that held a non-judgmental space for participants to practice being with the natural rhythms of our nervous systems. Completing and discharging through the body pent-up emotions and sensations in response to perceived threats, and restoring a sense of wellness. This is what new cutting edge body-centered trauma therapies are finding, yet ancestral wisdom within Zar has known it all along.

Read more about this project on ArteEast Farah Salem Artist Spotlight and Crossings Exhibition review on Ruckus Journal