I am an artist, anthropologist, writer and performer. On a perfect day I write in the morning, paint in the afternoon and do fieldwork  in  a dance studios or around the dinner table. In the studio theories take form with the movement of a brush across a canvas. Those same gestures stream words on a page. Texts, or colors or  ideas  can flow gently or have  sharp edges. I think of works of art or texts as bearing witness to  particular aspects or moments in these flows of discovery.  Movement and light are central to my  lyrical aesthetic.

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I studied art and history at UC Berkeley. An interest in the concept of the "avant-garde"  and colonial histories  led me to Paris and then to Morocco. I associated art and field research to explore  the entanglement of images and politics for a Ph.D.. I made beauty salons sites to study globalization and flows of fashion between Casablanca, Paris and Cairo. This led me to develop a series of paintings on women's work and then,  On the Line , a program of public art  focused on laundry.

 

My experiences of multiple   migrations  led me to collect and write about the stories of people who had lived in multiple countriesin Moving Matters Paths of Serial Migration.  The book sparked the creation of the Moving Matters Traveling Workshop, a roving collective of migrant artist/scholars.

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In Shifting Worlds, Shaping Fieldwork, A Memoir of Anthropology and Art  I write about how I create scenes for art making by associating moments in the studio with collaboration and movements between galleries, theaters, museums and public plazas. 

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My work has been exhibited, performed and published in Europe, the USA,  North Africa and the Middle East. In 2022 I  joined New York University Abu Dhabi as Professor of Movements, Places and Cultural Practices.

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