.

Revealing an archive, strange and unseen.
Kept by elders, steeped in riddles.

Sesame oil soaks in bread. The surrender and fluidity of oil, and the porous and unwavering security of bread, finally descend onto ancestral grounds- a tray of Tanoor bread. Slow and unsteady in its motions and interactions, bread is reimagined as a landing zone, the Bedouin pyramid of ancestral homage, tied to land and kin, free of assimilation: a departure from Bedouin ethos, viewed as desertion. 

Simplicity belies their deliberate, uneven dance.

The sesame oil’s journey through the unsystematic winding folds as it awaits the eventual release onto the warmth of the bread, unfolds in a performance, disregarding time, space, and predicted paths.

“الميلان على المكتوب”

is a reflection of the challenges in archival exploration as a result of innate Bedouin distrust of record keeping and dissemination of information.