here, may flowers grow
Dubai, 2024“may flowers grow in the saddest parts of you”
First attributed to storyteller, Zainab Aamir, this quote has emerged from Tumblr musings to Insta-quotes, movie soundtracks and pop art.
More recently, it has grown to caption an immeasurable heartbreak that ripples through us as we’ve watched crime after crime against humanity unfold before our eyes.
Where do turn when we cannot see a way forward?
How do we begin to imagine better, when hope itself seems a luxury?
Perhaps the answers can only begin as flowers do: as seeds, as offerings. These are mine.
Untitled No.1
Mixed media on Hanemuhle
550 x 690mm
Untitled No.2
Mixed media on Hanemuhle
550 x 690mm
so, here – may flowers grow
This series of images began five years ago in a not-too-distant time of hopelessness and extended isolation that was (and still is) Covid-19.
I found myself back home in Johannesburg, South Africa. And just when the world seemed to be opening up again, it was back to isolation for us – in more ways than one.
Much like Dubai, Johannesburg is largely a city of suburbs bolted together with un-walkable highways – each with more malls and office parks than neighbourhood parks.
The radius of domestic life is small. The infrastructure for community: gated.
Untitled No.5
Mixed media on Hanemuhle
550 x 690mm
Untitled No.6
Mixed media on Hanemuhle
550 x 690mm
Untitled No.4
Mixed media on Hanemuhle
550 x 690mm
Untitled No.3
Mixed media on Hanemuhle
550 x 690mm
Where do we go from here?
The global pandemic seemed only to echo and exacerbate that inner panic.
I’d go out for long walks or runs and whisper-scream this question into the night sky. It was then that I began to notice the flowers in a way I hadn’t before.
They’d been there in that little corner of the world all along – piercing through concrete, winding around fences, stretching taller than walls.
Some indigenous, some not: still blooming, despite it all.
Just like us.
Here, May Flowers Grow
Installation view: Dubai International Finance Centre (2024)
From left: Untitled No. 4
Mixed media on Hanemuhle
Framed in museum glass & aluminum
550 x 690mm
Postcards of Untitled No. 3 and a living garden installation
Here, May Flowers Grow
Installation view: Dubai International Finance Centre (2024)
From left: Untitled No. 5
Mixed media on Hanemuhle
Framed in museum glass & aluminum
550 x 690mm
Living garden installation
Untitled No.8
Mixed media on Hanemuhle
550 x 690mm
Untitled No.7
Mixed media on Hanemuhle
550 x 690mm