HIJRA
DEFRAMING POSTMIGRATION

PASSING
oil on canvas 200 x 100 cm
2023
In Hijra - Deframing Postmigration Rawan Almukhtar examines narratives of passing with connection with their relationship to race, gender and landscape. Aiming to deframe and deconstruct conventional discourses of migration, challenging stereotypes of migrants and conventional representation of refugees in particular. The term post-migration or post-migrant takes a deconstructive view of the identity distinction between who is seen as migrant and who is not. Who passes? Who does not and will never pass? By negotiating and deconstructing what is framed as migrant the artist wants to draw parallels to postcolonial theory by questioning and deconstructing linearity of complex processes and contexts.

LAYERS
oil on canvas 200 x 100 cm
2018

PINKNESS
charcoal on paper 43 x 41.5 cm
2018

DEFRAMING BODIES
Representation issues and canon are addressed in Almukhtar's works on flight and forced migration. In this body of work, Almukhtar creates new spaces to irritate gaze regimes and open spaces for alternative perceptions in relation to flight and forced migration. The Hijra collection is a manifestation of resistance against border regimes, in which the refusal of stopping or disappearing behind lines queers the border.
At the same time, Almukhtar explicitly works through their own history of forced migration and memories of the balkan route: On borders that divide and remain violent invisible lines, Almkuthar creates a visual language without lines. More fluid transitions, fleeting presences and ephemeral moments of resistance by narrating from the perspective of the witness.
Bodies that do not follow borders and harsh lines, rupture the order. Crossing borders is witnessed as an act of queering the space, an act of non-conformitivity as the bodies expand.
TRANSFOMRATIONS
oil on canvas 150 x 100 cm
2018

TRUE COLORS
charcoal on paper 58 x 42 cm
2018

ALL OF THEY
charcoal on paper 42 x 42 cm
2018

PRONOUNS
charcoal on paper 58 x 28 cm
2018

PASSING EXILE
charcoal on paper 58 x 42 cm
2018

NO TITLE
charcoal on paper 58 x 42 cm
2018

LEAVING IN RETURN
charcoal on paper 58 x 42 cm
2018

QUEERING BORDERS
As humans migrate, they change, create new spaces and landscapes.
Migration changes, the spaces that have been left and the landscapes that have been newly migrated to. Uncovering the emotional and political dimensions of arriveing while remaining missing somewhere else Rawan Almukhtar reveals borders as harsh lines and dense locations where fascism and authoritarian regimes accumulate.
Understanding crossing borders as a way of queering, Almukhtar invites to viewer to witness migrating bodies that turn against the orders of lines. This as an act of agency where the body extends in the space, making clear what a body while crossing can do.
MODERN LAW
mixed media on paper 100 x 45 cm
2018


PASS WITH ME
mixed media on paper 58 x 37 cm
2018
HYBRID
mixed media on paper 58 x 34 cm
2018
PASSING EXILE
Understanding how crossing and passing borders is not a disappearing behind lines.
The intention is to practice an act of resistance by intentionally producing new transitions of new lines of rebellion.
