Ahsan Hdeyeh 3ana

Abstract

Ahsan Hdeyeh 3ana consists of a series of large-scale India ink paintings on fabric, that stem from my experience as a second-generation Lebanese-Syrian woman born in Canada. This body of work references my familial archive of VHS home videos from the late 90s and early 2000s, encompassing my childhood in Canada and my parent’s life in Syria and Lebanon, to depict themes of cultural in-betweenness, family dynamics, memory, and multilingualism. Notably, this work centers on my childhood as it was recorded on these VHS tapes which were later sent to my family members in the Middle East so that they could watch my brother and I grow up despite the geographical distance. Even though I have not met many of them face-to-face, the exchange of these video tapes fostered a close family relationship between myself and my relatives. As VHS tapes deteriorate overtime, my paintings capture some of the memories contained in this forgotten media, while also allowing me to recontextualize imagery from the past and the present, reflecting on my diasporic connection to my Syrian-Lebanese identity.