Home, no matter how far away we drift, remains in our heart through its memories, both bitter and sweet…….This thin line, however thin, is strong and stable and, in god’s will, won’t break.”

ENTISSAR HAJALI

For this year’s Shubbak Festival, Chelsea Physic Garden is hosting Every Act of Recognition Alters What Survives. Consisting of a series of sculptural interventions, performances and a digital archive, the work emerged from a participatory process in which women of the Iraqi and Arab diaspora in London engaged in conversation around the role of memory in relation to place and history.

Sensitively positioned in the four-acre atmospheric garden grounds close to the Thames, three sculptural interventions are set in dialogue with the wide range of plants from across the world, symbolic for the artist because of their resonance with themes of migration and dispersion. They create focal points for contemplation and reflection.

On certain days co-collaborator Entissar Hajali, one of the original workshop members, leads audiences through a performance walk, reciting her specially written personal text The Climbing Vine. Devised with directors Chrystele Khodr and Lara Sawalha, the performance explores the sensory and emotional qualities of the garden.

Rand Abdul Jabbar

Rand Abdul Jabbar engages in a multi-disciplinary approach to creative output, oscillating across the threshold between design, architecture and the visual arts. Throughout her process, she often borrows from and reconstructs ephemera of place, history and memory, employing design, sculpture and installation as primary means of operation. Current research pursuits examine remnants of historic, cultural and personal narratives surrounding Iraq.