TAL Exhibit Statement

Loud Identities

Truths, Perceptions and Abstractions

“Who would ever want to do this for a living?” I once confidently stated these words as I studied for a microbiology test in Beirut, Lebanon. They still resonate in my mind today as I sit a long way from home, completing my Fellowship in Infectious Diseases in Providence, RI. Time has demonstrated its irony and I accept it with spirited amusement.

I am now fascinated with the subtle diplomacy between humans and the microscopic world. A world that does not consciously concern itself with politics, opinions, conspiracies, or emotions yet influences them heavily. We live in constant negotiation with viruses, bacteria, fungi, and others.

In these pieces, I attempt to capture our complex relationship with that world, picking a few representatives that have inspired me. You can find Aspergillus, Cryptococcus and the infamous COVID-19 depicted here. But crucially I present the many layers in which these organisms can affect our lives beyond the clinical or the laboratory, beyond the scientific interest.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted these interactions more than ever before. I find myself asking questions with few answers if any. How did these extraordinary months affect our societies? How did they influence human interaction? How did they affect mental health? How did they affect love?

We are emoting, social animals with all the complexity that might be inherent to that statement, and we were deprived of crucial aspects of who we are during this nuanced collective experience. I believe we can harness this deprivation and use it to engage a broad range of issues from the intimately personal to the globally human. Engaging with feelings of isolation, engaging with the rampant spread of misinformation, engaging with racial, social, economic, and even global disparities.

As the months rolled by, fight or flight mechanisms transitioned into adaptation. Our minds and bodies quickly switched focus from surviving to coping to overcoming and eventually attempting to thrive. The interaction between the microscopic underworld and our own is beyond medicine, beyond science and gets very abstract.

We all had our fears, insecurities and anxieties stressed, underlined, and highlighted. In this exhibit, I open a small window into mine. Lebanon, my home country in the throes of a major economic meltdown and reeling from a traumatizing explosion in its capital city of Beirut. My adoptive country struggling amid political, social, and racial unrest. Rampant misinformation at both ends of my world putting loved ones at risk. The world stretched and grieving in the fire of a ranging pandemic. Here are the images of worlds clashing.