Khadija Baker

Home Songs, 2011
Video installation includes liquid and ink, and handwriting
6 minutes, 29 seconds

The video Home Songs is a poetic installation based on writing letters to Amude, a Kurdish town in northern Syria close to the Turkish border, where Baker was born.

“In this video, I am writing on a special transparent liquid with black ink,” Baker explained.” The viewer needs to focus on the hand movement to see traces of my written words, which disappear in a short time. After writing many layers on the same surface, the viewer will not be able to see any visible letter.  Only the hand movement will be seen.  The project started last year and is related to my pregnancy and the experience of giving birth. I used this project as a metaphor for my displacement and immigration by creating a video based on written letters to the past home.”

Artist’s biography

Khadija Baker, a Montréal based artist of Kurdish-Syrian descent, is a multidisciplinary artist who creates installations that combine performance, digital art, sound and animation. Her work explores social and political themes related to persecution, displacement and memory. Her current research combines sound, performance and video/moving images to create intimate, site-specific sculptural installations that engage the senses.  

Baker is the recipient of many awards and scholarships, including the Millennium Scholarship at Concordia University (2005 & 2006), the Joyce Melville Memorial Scholarship in 2011, and the Vidéographe research and experimentation grant. 

Baker has exhibited in many cultural capitals such as Montréal, Toronto, New York, London, Berlin, Marseille, Istanbul, New Delhi, Beirut and Damascus.  She presented her work at the 18th Biennale of Sydney, Australia, in 2012.