Working in film, sculpture, and textiles, Farid traces histories often marginalized or obscured by the discourse of the Global North. In her pieces, local practices and traditions are put to new ends, and the rhythms of everyday life acquire political significance and potency.

The sixteen large-scale rugs that span the length of the gallery are all hand-woven and embroidered, the result of a Farid’s close collaboration with weavers in southern Iraq. Inspired by archives and interviews with members of the community, the pieces depict storefronts, writing, and cityscapes that conjure the prominent presence of the Palestinian diaspora in Puerto Rico. Pharmacies, restaurants, and shops owned and operated by Palestinians feature in these boldly-colored works; mosques recur frequently, as does the language of advertising and commerce. One rug reproduces a menu for ‘Comida Arabe’. Hanging in two parallel rows, the installation summons linearity of the street grid, as well as the layering and accumulation of lived history and daily routine. The juxtaposition of architecture and script (both Arabic and Spanish) testify to the distinct scene of cultural contact that Farid elucidates, in which migration from one point in the Global South to another brings forth new meanings, forms, and struggles. This South-South solidarity is less an abstract virtue than a feature quite literally sewn into these works in accordance with the flat-weaving and chain-stitching practices—complete with traditional motifs—from the Iraqi city of Samawa.

This exhibition of Elsewhere is just the first installment of an ongoing research project, initially conceived in 2013, which maps Arab and South Asian migration to Latin America and the Caribbean. Other sites of investigation are Trinidad, Cuba and Mexico. In this accretive, iterative process, Elsewhere is a single node or moment, one mark on an intricate map.