As Far As My Fingertips Take Me

Tania El Khoury

As Far As My Fingertips Take Me is conversation through a gallery wall between an audience member and a refugee. Through touch and sound, we share stories of people who have recently challenged border discrimination. The stories can be kept or washed away.

From Fusebox Today’s America is engaged in a deep debate over the proposed building of an enormous wall on our border, meant to keep immigrants out. What if you could sit right next to a wall, and hear the real story of one single refugee, speaking to you from the other side? The realities of human displacement, population shift, and forced migration sometimes feel abstract, removed by oceans and continents and reported on screens and pages. The words and images may affect us but can be forgotten with the turn of a page or click of a channel. In Tania El Khoury’s powerful work As Far As My Fingertips Take Me, these realities arrive home with a conversation between an audience member and a refugee. Though separated by a wall, both participants are nonetheless intimate and present. This vivid telling of the refugee’s story through words and images leaves a lasting impression, an experience that goes beyond skin-deep.

CREATIVE TEAM

One-on-one installation performance by Tania El Khoury Performed by: Basel Zaraa Song by Basel Zaraa (vocals, bass and keyboard): with Emily Churchill Zaraa (vocals), Pete Churchill (music production) and Katie Stevens (flute and clarinet). Commissioned by “On the Move” LIFT 2016 in partnership with Royal Court Theatre.