Shoroq Alashqar | شروق الأشقر

Shoroq Alashqar, Unfolding the Eucalypt (2023)

Shoroq Alashqar is a Saudi full-time mum that has an interior Design bachelor's background from the University of the Arts London and turned into a 'City Designer' at the Royal College of Art. She is a multidisciplinary designer and a Visual Artist, constantly exploring the influences of the Middle Eastern social environment on women’s invisible labour. She passionately examines the effects of her cultural heritage on public landscapes.

Her work typically achieved thorough brainstorming, followed by experimentation with raw materials, archives collection, and purpose-driven filmmaking to facilitate her outlook and appreciation of the micro-positions of individuals/objects and through to the macro-positions of a larger context.

Unfolding the Eucalypt is a decolonised Eucalyptus tree installation that narrates the history of Eucalyptus’s complex political, cultural and ecological position on a local, in Palestine, as well as global level.

By experimenting with eucalyptus leaves, bark, charcoal, and scent, Shoroq explores the tainted history of this tree, first from the Palestinian territory outside Akka in a village named Elmanshyieh. This land was used as an experimental landscape by the British "experts" who operated Eucalyptus agricultural experiments during the mandate, with an excuse of draining the swamps to avoid disease when in fact the trees were used as a source of timber to expand the mandate's authority.

On the global level, the eucalyptus is native to Australia and was used by Aboriginals for healing and practising multiple forms of ceremony and ritual. The tree was displaced and dispossessed by the colonies and became a weapon in negotiating boundaries of cities, as was the case in apartheid South Africa, and it was also used as a tool to build more efficient factories and was used for mass scale paper production in Portugal.

The installation uses homemade recycled paper using eucalyptus leaves and burnt bark to make her charcoal as a form of intimacy and closeness with the genus and a tool for storytelling from within.

Unfolding the Eucalypt

Unfolding the Eucalypt Is a decolonised Eucalyptus tree installation that narrates the history of Eucalyptus’s complex political, cultural and ecological position.

By experimenting with eucalyptus leaves, bark, and scent, Shoroq starts exploring the tainted history of this tree, first from the Palestinian lands and specifically outside Akka city In a village named Elmanshyieh. The land was used as an experimental landscape by the British "experts" who operated Eucalyptus agricultural experiments during their mandate.

Then by expanding her research into tracking down the history of colonising the eucalyptus genus. Eucalyptus is native to Australia and was used by the Indigenous Australians, the Aboriginals, for healing and practising ceremonies and rituals. The tree was displaced and dispossessed by the colonies and became a weapon in aligning cities' boundaries, just like in the south african apartheid. Despite Eucalyptus's invasive nature, it became distinguished as a potential opportunity to be exploited by authorities.

The drying process of making recycled paper

Archive Photograph of the agriculture research centre in Elmanshyeh village in Akka city in Palestine on a recycled eucalyptus paper.

First on the left: 100% Eucalyptus Middle: 50% Eucalyptus - 50% paper Last on the right: 25% Eucalyptus - 75%paper

1. Archive painting of Captain James Cook proclaiming sovereignty over Australia from the shore of Possession Island in 1770 printed on recycled eucalyptus paper. 2. Archive Photograph of the agriculture research centre in Elmanshyeh village in Akka city in Palestine printed on recycled eucalyptus paper. 3. Archive Photograph of the mining industry in South Africa printed on recycled eucalyptus paper.

Akka City and Elmanshyeh Village in Palestine where the agricultural plantation Experiment took place.

A proposed mockup of one side of the decolonised Eucalyptus tree installation

Illustration of the proposed final decolonised eucalyptus tree installation.

Medium:

Eucalyptus

A Collage from archived photographs of Palestinian women workforce within a rural context.

Medium:

Collage

Women’s Domestic Invisible Labour

In October 2022 I was blessed into becoming a first-time mom with ‘saleh’. At that same instance, I was already one month into the MA City Design programme at the RCA. The journey of playing the roles of a mother and a student at first was parallel to one another and never intersected. At some points, I sensed the urge to give up one to justify the other. I might not be the first person who has experienced such a bumpy road, and I will not be the last one, but when the storm got intense I asked for support from the people surrounding me. Here is when I realised I could become both, and this is where the ‘Invisible Domestic labour’ captured my attention. I was aiming to take the invisible reproductive labour undertaken by women that takes place in the private domestic sphere and make it visible.

The scanned objects are some of the items that I use domestically on a daily bases to maintain the well-being of my small family and me.