Defense Date
2025
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts
Department
Dean's Office Qatar
First Advisor
Basma Hamdy
Second Advisor
Marco Bruno
Third Advisor
Aspa Chatziefthimiou
Fourth Advisor
Jacqulyn Williams
Abstract
Beneath the Roots uses the wisdom of mangroves to investigate the naturalization of humans through science, spirituality, and storytelling. The seeds of Avicennia marina, the gray mangrove, drifted to Qatar at some point in history and took root, like so many other people here. The mangrove survives in a harsh saline environment through a unique salt excretion process. As a Qatar-born expat, I relate to this struggle to survive and nativize in a land that is both my own and foreign to me, in a cyclical conversation. I explore this nativization process through a ritual of salt extraction, creating botanical compositions, and returning the salt to its source, symbolizing how nativization is a reciprocal process where land and life are intertwined.
Rights
© The Author
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
5-1-2025