Catalog Text

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Hail rode our shoulders. Western Atlantic, the wind fresh of salt, foaming chop of winter. We met. Mirrored hunch we knew each other's cold. Souls meeting before language. Art bridged the gap.

 

Duaa Bilbeisi and Shannon Castor forged their friendship on the sweeping Irish terrain of the

Burren. Donkey peppered fields standing between micro climates enclosed them. Limestone lines, walls crawling the island. Isolation is a beautiful thing. A beautiful, unbearable thing. A fisheye vision on a raindrop, past lives blown up. It is clear that a friend causes healing.

 

Duaa and Shannon communicate through painting. They mine their memories and find a shared feeling. Working from a word prompt carefully chosen, they respond in color. Duaa’s bold graphic shapes, Shannon’s sense of drama. Figures often step into these translations.

 

In this unique collaboration between friends of different homelands, Duaa from Jordan, Shannon from America, these translations build a third language where words are not sufficient. Duaa and Shannon want to encourage people to find their mirror. To not let any barrier of communication be an obstacle. 

 

During their online residency with GlogauAIRir, Duaa and Shannon are producing an art book. The format reads like a comparison – each artist’s work is paired side by side. Viewers can interpret the interpretations of each selected word. The goal of the book is to inspire others to create freely through the special act of exchange.