Skin cello

Skin cello is an experimental cello that was created in 2016 using a wooden cello form and drum skin. This unique instrument expands the range of possible sounds by incorporating the materiality of the skin. The sound of the skin cello is directly affected by the environment and room temperature, resulting in constant changes in its sound. This invites the performer to explore unexpected sounds and requires a new technique to accommodate the instrument’s continuous change in sound. Listen

Circle cello

My concept originates from my experiences with the cello. As my relationship with it has evolved, so too has my technique and playing style. I’ve shifted my focus from technique to exploring the sounds I can produce. Instead of playing the “Cello” in the traditional manner, I position myself in front of the instrument. With both hands inverted from their usual positions, I am somewhat limited in traditional cello technique. However, this unconventional approach provides access to various timbres unattainable from the standard cello position.

Safety Pins

This preparation is such a way to create connections of memory, using objects that have a personal resonance (for example ‘dressing’ her instruments in safety pins like those her mother used  when she worked extra as a tailor ). or that alter her relationship with her instrument and its long memory of classical performance practice (by disordering it’s sound or its tuning). Click he

Feedback cello

The feedback cello is a collaboration project with composer and sound artist Hardi Kurda in 2014. the idea was to use the cello as a resonance box for five small speakers.

Hand Preparation

In this project, I use a hand rehabilitation object, typically employed to restore lost functions. Instead, I use it to restrict my hand’s movement. This self-imposed immobility symbolizes socio-political and cultural paralysis, physically embodying societal constraints. By limiting my own mobility, I aim to reflect on these societal restrictions and offer a concrete representation of these often abstract ideas. This work provides a profound commentary on social and political constraints. It critiques the unnoticed societal limitations, rendering complex concepts into a tangible form.

Knot cello

This is a preparation of the string of traditional cello, drawn from my experiences of learning to play in the war zone of Kurdistan-Iraq. This preparation is a representation of the physical adaptations that were necessary in my country because of the international trade embargoes, when we did not have access to materials and had to, for example, fix broken strings with knots. Therefore, I started to prepare my cello as a reflection on the sounds that were part of my daily life.

Untitled

 This preparation is a process of negotiation between us.