I Haven't Slept for Centuries

Visa, checkpoint, entry, exit, and rejection stamps were copied from Barakeh’s own passports and digitally isolated before being superimposed onto a single enlarged page. Decades of movement between countries collapse into a dense, increasingly opaque field. Dates, national emblems, authorisations, and refusals merge into an almost impenetrable mass. The more completely the document records its holder, the less of him can be seen.

The work constructs a self-portrait through bureaucratic residue. Rather than depicting a face or body, it shows identity being repeatedly rewritten by states and dispersed across competing jurisdictions. What initially appears to be a record of mobility is also a history of scrutiny, waiting, rejection, and forced adaptation. The title gives this accumulation a temporal weight: decades of movement are experienced as centuries of wakefulness. No crossing concludes the journey; each leaves another mark upon an identity that cannot settle.
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