“..Our identity is at once plural and partial. Sometimes we feel that we straddle two cultures; at other times, that we fall between two stools.” – Salman Rushdie, Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981-1991

In my home, cultures from all four corners of the world are distilled into one. I myself am American, Iranian, Jewish, and now, since having lived in Sydney for 8.5 years, semi-Australian. My partner was born in South Africa, and while his ancestors hail from Belgium and Russia, he identifies as Australian. We have two kids. On a daily basis I witness a blending of all these influences on our home. Our children will grow up identifying with a hybrid, global identity, one that is not routed in a definitive landscape, but rather somewhere within the juxtaposition of many.

Truth is, in today’s globalized world, we can no longer define one’s culture by national borders. The Moon Belongs to Everyone, is a response to this sense of being un-identifiable – not belonging here, nor there – but rather existing in the in-between.

The Moon Belongs to Everyone, is both an immersive multi-channel video installation and an artist book. The video installation consists of eight non-linear, moving ‘narratives’ made up of a montage of photographic stills and fragments of still-video, displayed on suspended screens in a blackened gallery space. The installation forms an ever-shifting architectural environment, encouraging the viewer to navigate around the screens to negotiate the narrative themselves. There is no specific viewing position with which to experience the artwork; I wanted the installation to emotionally and viscerally affect the viewer — to engage their sensation of spatial dislocation.

In continuing with the themes of an ever-shifting environment, the artist book is comprised of 36 plates, printed on transposable pages. The viewer is given authority to (re)position the pages and personally construct multiple narratives. New narratives may unfold with each interaction with the book. Presenting a kaleidoscope of seemingly diverse individuals viewed in isolation against a common, indeterminate landscape, The Moon Belongs to Everyone, in both its iterations, suggests that identities, histories, and memories, are perhaps continuously in flux.