Yalla Tnam

A commissioned sculpture for Institut Du Monde Arabe

-2021- 

Yalla Tnam, Yalla Tnam [May She Sleep, May She Sleep] is a poetic reflection on Beirut’s tragic descent into absurdity. 

On the 4th of August, it is not only the architectural and social tissue of the once passionate and pulsating metropolis that was damaged. The way the Lebanese perceive their capital city also changed forever.

Nothing makes sense anymore. 

Named for the soft tones of a traditional lullaby, the sculpture honours the loss of 3 year old Alexandra, and 2 year old Isaac, children of Beirut who were lost in the explosion. Painting a gentle scene, the melody cradles them to their eternal sleep: “Oh Lina, lend us your showering bowls, so that we can wash Rima’s clothes and hang them on the jasmine tree.” 

Bowls come together in fragments and chaos, an intersection that cannot contain anything anymore. A glaring, unavoidable slab of destruction, that cannot be ignored. Fractured vessels echoing the destruction of our souls. 

We wait to smell the jasmine’s perfume once again.