The work of Basma Alsharif is a tribute and testament to diasporic cultures, in this case Palestinian, drifting from the Gaza Strip to Egypt, France to the United States. Alsharif's work isn't so much about Palestine as it is about being without Palestine; the work speaks to a collective struggle of removal from place, and distance from home. From Everywhere was the Same (2007) to The Story of Milk and Honey (2011), Basma Alsharif: Videoworks Volume 1 evokes a sense of dissonance between place, subject, story, and camera.
DESCRIPTION
In an empty room, a slideshow projection of abandoned places plays alongside the narrative of two girls who find themselves on the shores of a pre-apocalyptic paradise. Told through subtitle text that weaves fact and fiction together, the story of a massacre unfolds. When the image and text malfunctions and the story is no longer comprehensible, the video wanders away from the room of the slideshow, allowing us to see what is happening elsewhere.
This title is also available on Basma Alsharif Videoworks: Volume 1