This thesis project aims to radically imagine a possible future for Iraq that’s unshackled from dystopian geopolitical narratives and Western notions of technological progress. I ground my research in the idea that history moves in cycles by referring to ancient Mesopotamia, a region that encompassed Iraq and parts of Turkey, Syria and Iran (7000BC – 500BC). Replete with literary and artistic artifacts set in clay and stone, the vast archeological record reveals a more dialectical worldview than our own. My thesis question asks: What seed of ancient wisdom, buried in deep time, could re-emerge in Iraq’s distant future?

My visual research of Mesopotamian art and aesthetics lead me to the mysterious recurring motif of the rod and ring. As potent signifiers for relationality, an overarching theme of investigation is that of gender relations in Mesopotamian society, and how it became increasingly patriarchal over the course of millennia - shaping the world we live in today. I also explore Mesopotamian oneiric epistemology, echoed in later regional traditions, to reframe our understanding of time and present dreaming as a speculative vehicle for time travel.

I approach my research through the theoretical lens of Luce Irigaray’s “Sexual Difference”, Riane Eisler’s social systems theory of “partnership” vs “dominator” models, and historians Zainab Bahrani and Gerda Lerner’s critical reading of ancient Near-Eastern scholarship. My research-creation work is also informed by psychoanalyst Carl G. Jung’s multicultural study the language of symbols in dreams.

This research-creation process is demonstrated in a multidisciplinary exhibit Remember the Future: Oneiric Artifacts from Mesopotamia - presented at OCAD University’s Grad Gallery in June of 2024 – which combines cinema and ceramics. My goals are to contribute to growing feminist scholarship in the arts that incorporates what Irigaray calls “female subjectivity” into male-dominated discourses, and to inspire Arab youth to dream defiantly.

• Author