A Recipe for Camouflage
Project_Khadija Baker’s project is inspired by the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, ancient gardens considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Traditionally, the King Nebuchadrezzar II (reigned c. 605–c. 561 BCE), built them to console his Median wife, Amytis, because she missed the mountains and greenery of her homeland. The concept of belonging here is based on this gesture: an attempt to recreate a sense of home through acts of love.
A Recipe for Camouflage unfolds over an initial week during which the artist assembles the main structure for her sculptural work, using bamboo, wood and wire. The structure is then covered with a special mix of sand, clay, and hay to complete the creation of her “Hanging Garden” spaces. Baker subsequently activates the installation through a series of public workshops, inviting participants to contribute paper seeds made alongside the artist, collectively animating and transforming the work.
Bio_Khadija Baker is a Tiohtià:ke/Montréal-based, multidisciplinary artist of Kurdish-Syrian descent (born in Amuda, Syria). Baker immigrated to Canada from Syria in 2001; she completed her MFA studies at Concordia University in 2012. She is a core member of the Centre for Oral History & Digital Storytelling (COHDS) at Concordia University. Her installations investigate social and political themes centred on the uncertainty of home as it relates to persecution, identity, displacement, and memory. As a witness to traumatic events, unsettled feelings of home are a part of her experience. Her multidisciplinary installations often combine textiles, sculpture, performance, sound and video, and involve participative storytelling and performance to create active spaces for greater understanding. In 2024, Baker finished her HUMA PhD research-creation at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture (CISSC) at Concordia University.
Approach_Khadija Baker views relationships as a form of power. Community empowerment is essential to access home comfort, to dwell fully and to access a feeling of certainty; this holds true for both the individual and the community. With this project Khadija Baker examines the empowerment of inclusion, which transcends the individual, the collective, the human, or the non-human. Through the motif of camouflage, this installation highlights parts of the process of inhabiting and belonging by making use of the natural world that surrounds us. Khadija Baker intends to maintain an ecological practice within the process, ensuring that these relations have the quality to be within nature; therefore, the surrounding environment will serve as her inspiration while collaborating with communities to collectively produce this sculptural installation.
