Tsipori over Safuriyya

Printed chiffon, thread, 3’ x 28’, 2026.

Description

Tsipori over Safuriyya is a 3' x 28' hanging archive composed of images from the Jewish National Fund (JNF) photo archive documenting Tsipori, Israel—a site where the JNF planted trees over the ruins of Safuriyya, a Palestinian village captured and forcibly “depopulated” in 1948. Using generative AI, I've removed the figures of Jewish Israelis from these archival photographs while preserving their ghostly traces, creating a speculative visualization of a landscape unburdened by its present occupation: a haunting past that could have been. The modified images are printed on chiffon and sewn into a single translucent banner, the first in a planned series addressing the 46 JNF sites that conceal or occupy the ruins of Palestinian villages—one chiffon banner per erased place.

This work was made with support from a Kala Art Institute Artist Residency.

Exhibitions

• “Wayfinders: the Art + Architecture Faculty Triennial”, Thacher Gallery, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA. Mar 2 - April 12-2026.