My Identity Is This Expanse!

Dream 1 The child's mother appears, as if in a dream. Together they recite Mahmoud Darwish's poem, "If I Were Another."
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Dream 1 The child's mother appears, as if in a dream. Together they recite Mahmoud Darwish's poem, "If I Were Another."
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Dream 1 The child's mother appears, as if in a dream. Together they recite Mahmoud Darwish's poem, "If I Were Another."
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Dream 2 In a dark and dangerous back alley, the words of Darwish's poem let the child rise up out of confinement, high above the city. But the world turns upside down and the child is suspended between city and ocean waves.
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Dream 2 In a dark and dangerous back alley, the words of Darwish's poem let the child rise up out of confinement, high above the city. But the world turns upside down and the child is suspended between city and ocean waves.
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Dream 3 The child embraces the waves, forms them into a blue box. Out of the box arises the final word of Darwish's poem: "My Identity Is This Expanse."
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Dream 3 The child embraces the waves, forms them into a blue box. Out of the box arises the final word of Darwish's poem: "My Identity Is This Expanse."
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Dream 3 The child embraces the waves, forms them into a blue box. Out of the box arises the final word of Darwish's poem: "My Identity Is This Expanse."
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Dream 3 The child embraces the waves, forms them into a blue box. Out of the box arises the final word of Darwish's poem: "My Identity Is This Expanse."
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I am honored to be guest VR artist in Karolina Markiewicz and Pascal Piron's moving VR work that tells the story of a child who, resilient to despair, seeks relief through memories, imagination, and the strength of poetry. This is based on the true story of Yunus Yusuf, who was transported, confined in a wooden box, from Afghanistan to Luxembourg at the age of 13.

It is also the story of millions of other refugee children and adults, both today and throughout history. Mahmoud Darwish's poem, "If I Were Another," taught to him by his mother, is both the child's and the viewer's entrance into this realm of relief and resilience. Below are some stills from the dream sequences I created.