Deeply affected by growing up under occupation, interdisciplinary artist Bashar Alhroub poetically inspects individual experience as it relates to imposed political realities. Rooted in his own subjectivity, Alhroub explores sentiments of belonging and attachment to specific places, cultures and communities. As a Palestinian born in Hebron, Alhroub is accustomed to dealing with the complexities of place and identity.

In the Here and Now series, produced while living in the United Kingdom and pursuing his Master’s of Fine Arts at University of Southampton’s Winchester School of Art, Alhroub investigates the relationship between the individual, self, memory and physical surroundings. Placing himself in various locations with a mirrored cube on his head, the artist’s body and head become the location where contested notions of visibility, invisibility and identification are negotiated. Against the backdrop of the artist’s experiences of estrangement under occupation, the work explores different levels of alienation, the hitherto-unknown physical freedom felt during Alhroub’s sojourn in the UK, the novelty of being a foreigner in unfamiliar surroundings, in contrast with the feeling of being a foreigner in one’s own country.