Safa Youness on غربة /Ghurba
An interview with AWE 2024 RBC Emerging Artist in Residence
by Fei Qin
What’s your medium of choice? & why this medium?
My medium of choice is installations — creating a narrative, an energy, being able to tell a story with many pieces and dimensions. It allows for an incredible amount of creative decision making — which can be a blessing and a curse. I’m able to showcase and centre these wonderful photographs and build a setting in which I invite you into viewing. Just as you usually show family photos in your living room, I can recreate my family’s living room.
Where does your inspiration for this piece come from?
My family, my father and mother. I think the main question I was trying to answer for a long time is “how did I end up here?” I’ve been in Windsor for some years now, connecting to the creative community here and I’ve always wondered how it would’ve been if it weren’t for the colonization of Palestine? Would I be growing up on my grandparent’s farms in northern occupied Palestine? Would I perhaps have joined the art scene in Jerusalem or Nazareth? What would my artistic endeavors look like? I kept coming back to these brilliant photos my father and other family members took in the 1970’s in the refugee camp they found themselves in, in the south of Lebanon. These photos were taken some 20 years after my grandparents, on both sides, were forcibly expelled from their homeland and forced to build new lives with young children in a refugee camp. These photos showed the resilience, love, care, community my family created. I’ve found them to be so inspiring, and really leaning on these feelings to help me through the immense grief witnessing the genocide of my people every day for over 400 days. I made this to provide a similar sense of comfort for others in my community and those affected by colonization; there will always be life and love to be had and shared in community. We are here for each other.
Do you have any artists that you admire? Contemporary or otherwise?
Local artists — Jude Abu Zaineh, Bilal Nasser, Kamryn Kusamano
Reflecting on your experience so far as the EAIR, how are you finding this residency to compliment your journey as a young artist?
I think its wonderful. I couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity. The team is endlessly helpful, extending themselves whenever I have a question or request. I’m new to all of this and the space that DGG has provided for this project fits with my needs as an emerging artist perfectly.
How does it feel to be a young artist in this city?
I think the size of the community here is very comforting to me. The closeness and openness of the art scene here lends itself to trying new things. I’ve been thinking of this idea for this project for many years now and the moment I decided to act on it, other young artists in the city helped me find the connections necessary to create and be an artist. There are many opportunities for young artists in this city!
This exhibition is generously supported by the RBC Foundation’s Emerging Artist Project.
