I AM WITH HER

I AM WITH HER is the first in a series of twenty-eight tapestries.

Born from a collaboration between Lara Baladi and Bokja Design, the first tapestry of the series focuses on the word.

Nature and was conceived for Lost in the Right Direction, an exhibition curated by Art Design Lebanon in the midst of the Deir el-Qalaa ruins (The Monastery of The Fortress). Each tapestry is Bokja’s interpretation–via embroidered textiles– of Baladi’s assemblages of images and texts. Once completed, the series will unfold over more than seventy meters to reveal twenty-eight illustrated words, one for each letter of the Arabic alphabet.

As we near what scientists and conservationists call the ‘Sixth Mass Extinction,’ questions surrounding the human impact on earth arise, prompting us to reevaluate our relationship with the environment.

Gazing into a future of hope, the artwork draws on the iconography of past and present protests and revolutions and the representation of history. A reflection on the Anthropocene epoch we live in, the River of Life is a commentary on our present-day condition, which proposes a renewed and more integrated relationship with her, mother Earth.