One of the things that I value so much about your work is that while your activism involves resistance, refusal and critique, it also includes repair, care and compassion. That complexity is the lifeblood of your work. Could you talk about that impulse to balance both?

I’ve discussed how the art world and academia are toxic spaces. I enjoy being a part of them, despite their faults or flaws. But watching my mom do the care work [with birds] as a child, I recognized that as a lineage of care that she was passing down. Care work has allowed me to disconnect from academia and the art world. I’m not saying that art and teaching can’t make a difference, but it’s so rare that we see our work in those realms make a change. 

While my animal rehabilitation work does not provide instant gratification, I can make a difference in these animals’ lives. Witnessing birds that have been in captive care rejoining the world gives me a real feeling of success. I get this high that I don’t get working in other fields. So, the care work is caring for them and caring for myself. However, it’s tricky negotiating it all with my practice. 

Many of your projects address political corruption, human rights and geopolitics between the SWANA region and the West. The work provokes the viewer to confront their blind spots. Can you talk about that?

It comes from being a kid who grew up in post-9/11 America. We lived in the Midwest, and there were no other people from the greater SWANA region. I grew up in a very heterogeneous, heteronormative white space, and even in the public education system as well as the private, no discussion of history was happening outside of the United States that wasn’t Eurocentric. That created so many blind spots for the people I grew up with. 

Post 9/11, people confused Iraq and Iran as the same place. People’s ignorance was rampant, and it remains to be so. I think ignorance is bliss for many people. Comfort is preferable to being uncomfortable and learning new things. Being raised in that context has led my work to try to tackle that mentality.