Today, a Palestinian police officer tried to give me a ticket because my car was too dirty. A little while later (presumably in protest), my car died just as I was at the checkpoint — my passport in the soldier’s hands!
But nothing can bring me down from the joy of seeing my friend (and my co-author of the soon-to-be-published-we-hope picture book, “Because it is Also Your Story”) in her first public exhibition called, “Experiment #1. She and three other brilliant young Palestinians make beautiful furniture from trash.
Here is Danna sitting on a stylish seat made of discarded packing crates and covered with an attractive cushion made by a local artisan.
High bar chair made of old water pipes with a woven seat made of discarded inner tubes.
This is a very comfortable “beanbag” chair. It’s made from thrown-away blue jeans and stuffed with old, foam packing pellets.
The picture does not do this justice! It’s a lamp made from a broken shower head with a lamp shade made from a loofah.
A beautifully finished table made from a door they found in the street atop old water pipes.
Attractive sofa made of a discarded wood shipping box and cardboard tubes thrown aside in the industrial zone in Ramallah.
See more work of these “four emerging architects [who] came together to work on finding environmental solutions that hold social responsibility at their core.” They are on Facebook at ShamsArd Design Studio, the web at ShamsArd.wordpress.com and on Twitter at @ShamsArd or by email at ShamsArde@gmail.com.
Thank you Elaine and Nora for the encouraging words! The exhibition although a bit non-conventional was received really well! We received a lot of encouragement and some people offered to give us materials they are not using but couldn’t get themselves to throw out because it just didn’t make sense. they were thrilled it wouldn’t be wasted. For the next period, we will be focusing on finding and testing alternative building material. If you are interested and want to keep up with what we are doing our facebook page is the best way, at least until we get our website up.
here’s the link: http://shrvl.com/SDR27
Danna
In the midst of decades of occupation, Danna’s wonderful furniture, environmentally sound, demonstrates how creative life continues to break through the crusted earth to express itself and say “I am still here.” E