I Wish Everything Was Different is an ongoing painting series that explores the weight of human suffering and the fragile nature of existence. Supported by an AFK stipend 2025 and the Amarte Development Fund 2025, the project continues my recent work in which I transform images of pain and loss into soft, dreamlike paintings. I work with deeply charged visual material — Polaroid photographs of my family and loved ones scattered across different places, but also images from the news and screenshots from reels on Instagram, where people document their own final moments. In translating these raw, immediate fragments into paintings, I slow down their urgency, allowing the viewer to meet them with care rather than shock. Colors break away from monochrome grounds, and delicate gestures emerge from abstraction, creating a space where the unbearable can be held in quiet contemplation. The series moves between reality and dream, searching for a visual language that captures the tenderness, fragility, and endurance of the human condition.
The flowers, symbols of hope and liberation, honor the Palestinian people and stand as a quiet yet powerful reminder that freedom will come.
“The red we remember”
Acrylics on linen
200x200 cm
2025
“The Farewell”
Acrylics, Oil pain, oil pastels and pigment dye transfer on linen
200x200 cm
2025
“No more fathers”
Acrylics and pencil colors on cotton
200x120 cm
2025
“Mazen”
Acrylics and gouache on linen
65x50cm
2025
“I am still here”
Acrylics on linen
50x40 cm
2025
Private collection
“The Sounds of Water”
Acrylic on linen
50 × 40 cm
2025
“It will Bloom”
Acrylics on linen
50x40cm
2025
Private collection