“Fear of a Bearded Planet – collective Semitic self portrait after Robert Blanchon (2007 – present)” (drawings, performance intervention, covert documentation)
Performance intervention in which I sat for souvenir portrait drawers in various international locations (New York, Toronto, Vienna, Barcelona, London, Berlin, Paris). When the portrait artists ask “where are you from” I ask them to guess. The drawings are accompanied by short anecdotes describing the conversations and locations of each drawing.
“Bethlehem Checkpoint postcard” (2006) (videostill, mail art)
A postcard incorporating a videostill taken from a few seconds of video I shot while visiting the checkpoint at Bethlehem with Machsom Watch in 2006, the first ever time I was mistaken as Muslim. The surveillance tower is juxtaposed with an image of a bearded figure wearing a badge from the Israeli women’s peace activist group Machsom Watch, and a historic image of Bethlehem from an antique souvenir postcard. I sent “Bethlehem Checkpoint postcard” as an emailed attachment to my entire email history list, every Christmas and Easter for 3 years. “Bethlehem Checkpoint postcard” has been printed as an actual postcard (by Rafi Ghanagounian/K6 Projects Toronto), and made available to museum guests courtesy of Lentos Museum.
Exhibition history:
2017 (Bethlehem Checkpoint Postcard only) Im/Mobilities. Galerie KUB, Leipzig, Juana Awad, Julia Eckert and Nada Schroer curators.
2012 – 2013 Vollmilch – The Beard as Signifier. Lentos Museum, Austria. Thomas Edlinger, curator. Group exhibition with Eleanor Antin, Oreet Ashery, Claude Cahun, General Idea, Zoe Leonard, Scott Matthew, Adrian Piper.
Publication History:
2023 Trans Hirstory in 99 Objects Chris E. Vargas, Christina Linden, and David Evans Frantz, eds. Hirmer Verlag, pub.
