Shelter-me-not (2015)

“Shelter-me-not” is an infographic art installation that sheds light on the precarious housing conditions of Syrian refugees in Lebanon, and the deeper layers of personal and cultural loss that come with displacement. At the height of the Syrian civil war, Lebanon became home to over two million refugees—hosting the highest number of displaced people per capita in the world. Most of these families found shelter in makeshift spaces never meant for habitation, often lacking doors, windows, electricity, water, and basic infrastructure.

Drawing from UNHCR field data and Syrian cultural and architectural heritage, the work delicately renders the brutal facts of displacement through the soft medium of embroidery and fabric collage. Monochromatic embroidered hoops float in space, their dangling threads extending toward the ground like suspended lifelines. Each hoop visualizes a shelter deficiency, while collectively they evoke the fragility of unresolved lives caught in limbo.

At the center, a vibrant patchwork collage in folkloric textiles portrays a typical overcrowded refugee dwelling. It stands in stark contrast to the surrounding muted tones, suggesting both resilience and rupture. Beyond numbers, Shelter-me-not restores intimacy to the crisis: a missing window is not just a structural void—it is a lost frame of memory, a threshold between belonging and exile.