The most important aspects about my partner that I wanted to convey was who she is as a person and what she values most. After learning about Wiaam, I discovered that she is someone who has an inner conflict with herself and is consistently telling herself to give up when life gets difficult. But, as she’s gotten older she has learned to fight this side of herself and move past it. To convey this, I took inspiration from the idea of Yin and Yang and chose to show the shape of a women who is standing strong (shown in white to symbolize good), and the other who is broken in half (colored in black to symbolize darkness). I also really wanted to incorporate Wiaam’s Moroccan heritage throughout the entire piece. Written above the figures, in Arabic, are the phrases “Give up” and “No”. Continuing with the importance of Wiaam’s Moroccan heritage, I decided to slightly redesign the Moroccan Coat of Arms by inserting the symbol for feminism on top (which symbolizes Wiaam rising above the discrimination against women in Morocco) and by writing Wiaam’s name in Arabic within the banner directly below the badge.
For the materials of the piece, I am going to be using clay because it is the same material that ancient Moroccan pottery was created with. The flower that I chose for this piece is going to be a fake rose. Wiaam frequently mentioned the idea of “love” throughout the interview and how she has an undying love for her family, but has lost hope entirely for finding love within a significant other (this part in particular is why the rose itself is going to be fake).
