Sara Alahbabi





“I think in English, but I feel in Arabic” is a sentence so nuanced and so personal to myself and to those for whom Arabic is their mother tongue but feel more confident to express in English. It comes in instances when I speak in Arabic but feel the need to throw in some English words mid-sentence because my brain would have fought an effort to think of the right Arabic word. This larger body of work, which I call “Learning to Unlearn,” is a response to my experience as a student in a private British school where classes were taught predominantly in English apart from a once-a-week Arabic class for the few Arabic speaking students. And as a result, my Arabic was compromised and left me with a feeling of lacking. Pedagogy and language are still a work in progress for a region that is constantly evolving, but what is lost, and what is gained from this pragmatic approach to English? This work examines my attempt to reconstruct and reimagine an education where bilingualism exists without compromising one another.
Learning to Unlearn, Flux 2023
Concrete, Chalkboard, Chalk, Text on wall, Archival Images
Art installation in various dimensions
NYUAD Project Space,