“For the purposes of this decision, she will refer to him as John Doe.”
(Taken from personal transcript of the online hearing given by Ontario superior court justice, Anne Molloy, March 3, 2021)
(Taken from personal transcript of the online hearing given by Ontario superior court justice, Anne Molloy, March 3, 2021)
The Two Matriarchs (2018), Cardboard, gold-painted nails, acrylic on canvas, 48" x 48"
A Hail Mary, 2023
Video (color, sound, 10 mins 30 sec), cardboard, gold painted nails, acrylic on canvas
On April 23, 2018, Toronto witnessed one of Canada's deadliest mass murder attacks. The widely reported incident is now famously known as the Toronto Van Attack. A Hail Mary considers the interplay between what is seen and unseen, visible and invisible. The perpetrator’s aim was to be notorious; internationally visible. My grandfather, who was visiting my newly immigrated mother, became one of the victims who lost their lives that day, inadvertently made invisible.
A Hail Mary is one part still image, one part moving image; a large-scale portrait of my mother and grandmother painted in 2018, which later becomes the focal point of the short-experimental video work produced five years later. The painting serves as a catalyst for conversation within both the film and my family, aiding in the act of processing for the image and its contents. Here, the process of painting pushes beyond the confines of canvas, and what lies beneath painted faces is made visible by filming fragments from home, both in Amman and Toronto.
"Hail Mary'' can take on both the meaning of a Christian prayer and an unsuccessful plan; two elements that are seemingly interwoven into this story. While my grandfather’s death sets the stage in these two types of images, it is the challenges Canadian immigration that takes center stage, alongside the significance of religious faith, for coping, at a time of mourning and moving.
A Hail Mary was commissioned by the Toronto Arab Film Festival with support from Trinity Square Video.
Exhibited at the Window Art Gallery, DIFFUSION Festival, Kuala Lumpur Experimental Film + Music Festival, Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology & Etobicoke Civic Center Art Gallery