Jumana Emil Abboud @ Baltic, Gateshead

Jumana Emil Abboud works with drawing, installation, video and performance, exploring personal and collective memory, loss, longing and belonging. Inspired by the cultural landscape of her home, Abboud draws on the traditions of Palestinian folklore and myth-making by collecting stories and fairy tales. Investigating these story telling practices and oral histories, the artist provides new interpretations for the tales she has discovered.
This exhibition brings together a body of recent work, including the series of drawings The Ballad of the Lady Who Lives Behind Trees 2005-14 and the film I Feel Nothing 2013, alongside a new video installation. Abboud’s delicate drawings depict monsters and magical beings with the landscapes and sites they inhabit including grottos, wells and trees. Presented as a constellation, we are encouraged to weave these elements together and create our own narratives.