Wash Your Hands, 2017

Nablus soap on wood sourced from the West Bank

20cm x 90cm x 24cm

“The Fool by the Roadside”, solo show, the Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar, Co. Mayo (IE)

Photos: Ger Duffy

My work investigates notions of psychological and physical displacement. My playful attitude to materials and situations counterbalances a very serious social conscience and political intent. In a time of washing hands, do we wash our hands of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

One of the surviving Palestinian industries in the West Bank is Nablus soap where I purchase my material. From my time spent in the West Bank filming for my award-winning short documentary “Sumud, Everyday Resistance” (2016), I collaborated with the NGO Badil. The organisation rehouse Palestinians who become homeless due to Israeli house demolition policies. The faces sculptured out of the Nablus soap are the faces of the people made homeless and seek shelter elsewhere.