عندك رزقة بيضا | Future Constructs
2018
“Stop being a prisoner of your past. Become the architect of your future.” (Sharma, 2016)
What if the future was drawn in coffee at the bottom of a cup?
Recently, I found myself turning my cup on its saucer every time I drank coffee. And I realized that after years of watching my teta (grandmother) read cups I cultivated a habit of turning it around as if constantly waiting on my cup to be read.
Coffee cup reading, a ritual that have cradled my childhood and early adulthood with stories of Knights, horses, and pigeons carrying good news..., suddenly disappeared with the passing of my teta.
After researching its origin, development, and impact, I started looking at the residues and the pattern they created as maps and cartographies towards an uncertain tomorrow. It got me to deconstruct the ritual into three moments:
The preparation: It consists of the act of reading the cup:The subject, the reader, the cup, and the reading.
The Maps: The residues left in the coffee cup and the pattern created by them.
The destination: The interpretation of the reading based on the subject’s recollections of the decoding of the cup.
This whole experiment goes after a vernacular social ritual that is on the verge of extinction. It is also meant to look at the dichotomy between the certain habitual and the uncertainty of the future coexisting in the same gesture.
The destination is no longer a place, the constructions aren’t physical, but the future remains in the foggy distance.
The Planning
Timelapse of the reading
Transcript of the reading | Translated to english
Firstly, you have a white gate you will be going through. This is a big gate that has to do with work… and you will be happy.
You have a thin serpent, and you feel like, this person, this person is not good to you… Look, a blonde snake spreading poisonous words not too good to you.
Two signs you are going to hear words, either an official person, or someone with a hat on… you have a meeting with him.
A blank/white paper you’re going to read… or write. I don’t know!
A person is coming to say hello to you.
Laeti, you are anxious… you have this dog, a friend; no matter where you go he’s behind you, with you.
You’re going to get good news… but you are anxious… anxious… I don’t know!
You have this sadness at the top of the cup…. Damn it… Look how stubborn it is…
A candle, a beautiful candle!
You will hear about a mattress, a sickly person… someone you will visit.
You have a bird delivering news… a fortune… something you work in… you use… I don’t know but this is very good news!
In front of you are two signs, even though it’s late, but no matter what, it will happen! OK?
You’re welcome!
Untitled 1
Untitled 2
Untitled 3
Untitled 4
Untitled 5
Untitled 6
Untitled 7
Untitled 8
Untitled 9
Untitled 10
Untitled 11
The Maps
The maps photographed were used to create 3D models that were subsequently carved in wood.
The Valleys of the Future
The Desert of Sorrow
The Lake of Opportunities
The wooden statues
The Interpretation
Made of a video, an audio and an Installation
The Interpretation (Video + Audio)