Lamis Haggag, How Do I Look on Paper? (The Jasmine Tree), installation view, Eva Maria Ocherbauer 2017.
Born Egypt, lives and works between Cairo, Egypt and Toronto, Canada
How Do I Look on Paper? (The Jasmine Tree) 2017
Interactive installation
Courtesy of the artist
Artist’s statement
How Do I Look on Paper (The Jasmine Tree) is a critical project that rejects evaluating people based on their write-ups and documents. In the process of applying for visas, exhibitions, residencies, jobs or immigration, you are judged based on how you appear to be on paper. Whoever processes your documents does not know you as a person. They do not know your history, likes, dislikes and they certainly do not identify with you as an individual; your experiences are reduced to a pile of paper and your future is decided upon it. My project comprises producing a series of interactive works based off of told stories that are usually disregarded by influential personnel. Through interactivity with the public, the works would deliver alternative means to document memories and thoughts that constitute the narratives of certain individuals or groups of people.
I started my series with a narrative of mine that had never been documented, the interactive Jasmine tree. Through proximity sensors that detect the movement of the public around or towards the natural Jasmine tree, the motors provide movement to the branches towards the approaching viewers.
