Over a hundred years ago, the Ottoman Turkish government killed about half of the Assyrian population. Many of the survivors fled from their homelands to Western countries, and assimilated as much as they could into whiteness to survive. My Assyrian family fled from Urmia, Iran along with the majority of the city. In this reality, they took a boat to the USA and were detained for years on Angel Island. They farmed in the Central Valley, worked in San Francisco, and whitened their names to become Americans. 

In an alternate reality, they fled to outer space, wandering throughout the galaxy before making their own home in the stars. This series of digital paintings explores what my family and a greater Assyrian diaspora would look like without the persecution that exists on Earth. How would culture evolve without the pressure of assimilation? How could ancestral practices like weaving develop into electronics integral to their home? 

This exploration is heavily influenced by Afrofuturist media like Black Panther, as well as the indigenous and diasporic stories often used in Star Wars. I chose to ground the galaxy in this alternate reality in the widely known Star Wars universe, to show these parallels and give a point of entry to those not familiar with a diaspora experience.

2023 — digital painting and collage