Reinventing maps and architectural spaces has been a focus of Christine Gedeon‘s work, who was born in Aleppo in 1973, and immigrated to the US in 1976. Writing about her string sculpture, entitled,  “Syria..as my mother speaks” the artist describes “an interactive playable “string instrument”, connecting strands of wire to the architecture of the space, and when triggered, plays layered sounds and snippets of stories and conversations with my mother (mainly in Arabic), centered around the war in Syria, our relatives there, and my mother’s memories before the war.”

Now with the war in Syria, her work has turned even more personal and Harpo Foundation is pleased to provide Ms. Gedeon with a direct artist grant to assist her production and development of new work about the impact the Syrian war has had on her family.

(Excerpt and images below selected from grant proposal. All works are copyright of the artist.)