ESTHER ELIA: BAZAAR ASHURAYA

“The home is where Assyria lives and breathes,” says artist Esther Elia. “The home is where our language is spoken, even if we speak English or Arabic or Farsi or French or Swedish outside of the home; the home is where Assyrian food is made, where Assyrian customs thrive, and where culture is maintained as well as created, pushed forward — as we mix with diaspora, our clothes, furnishings, and habits reflect the mixing with these new places.”
 
Elia is an artist of mixed Assyrian and Irish descent, and her work combats the misconception that Assyrian art is a thing of the ancient past. Through sculpture, large-scale painting and clothing, she explores the contemporary Assyrian experience and the perpetual ritual of maintaining and creating culture in diaspora.