Freedom
1984 - Present
Description
Coloured from various airlines and countries, these boarding passes represent 20 years of travel and embody the freedom to move. However, when glued onto canvas, they also symbolise displacement and controlled movement. A calligraphic Arabic word, "Freedom", is inscribed across the boarding passes and tickets. Over time, the spacing between the passes widens, creating a sense of tension between the fluidity of the calligraphy and the bureaucratic marks, which represent a struggle between freedom and restriction. This artwork reuses the boarding passes by turning them into a question: “What is freedom?"
Artist Notes
My journey began in 1999, when I was just seventeen years old, and I crossed the border into Egypt via the Rafah crossing. I had purchased a ticket to cross the border, but I was held up for over twelve hours on the floor, waiting for permission to enter Egypt. Travel had always been my dream, but that day, the shocks and trauma I experienced made me rethink what 'Freedom' truly means. This work is a series of fragmented journeys that spanned from 2001 to 2018. The tickets, stamped boarding passes, and destinations I've collected represent restrictions, movement, waiting, airports, and crossings. Each ticket is a memory and a wound – whether I was allowed to travel, denied, questioned, restricted, or never had the chance to use it. By bringing them together, I let them speak and transform them into a work of resistance, questioning the very idea of freedom. You can read the word “Freedom' and think it represents genuine freedom of movement, but I sometimes see it differently: 'What is freedom?' This work is a philosophical exploration between borders, borderless existence, freedom, exile, and dignity.
