work statement
تقبرني (Ta’burni), meaning “bury me,” is the ultimate expression of love. It is communicated to someone to express that you hope you die before them, because you could not bear to live life without them. The artist takes inspiration from Lebanese food to create a digital collage in dedication to her partner. Having grown up hearing “ta’burni” (feminine) or “yo’burni” (gender neutral) from her mom growing up, she now passes on the phrase and food rituals to her lover. The roses, cinnamon, and parsley are interanimated in a fluid assembly to represent diaspora, pleasure, and cultural transference.
artist bio
Christina Hajjar is a Lebanese artist, writer, and cultural worker based in Winnipeg, Manitoba on Treaty 1 Territory. Her practice considers intergenerational inheritance, domesticity, and place through diaspora, body archives, and cultural iconography. As a queer femme and first-generation subject, she is invested in the poetics of process, translation, and collaborative labour. Hajjar curates the SWANA Film Festival and co-edits Carnation Zine and qumra journal. She won a 2021 Broken Pencil Zine Award, 2020 PLATFORM Photography Award, and an honourable mention for the 2021 Emerging Digital Artists Award. Learn more at christinahajjar.com.