In My Heart
2023
This act of entering is an essential part of the work itself. The movement of lowering the body and passing through a narrow opening becomes a performative gesture of vulnerability, trust, and surrender. The viewer is invited to quite literally enter the heart — a space that is usually imagined as intimate, private, and inaccessible.
Inside, the installation is filled with the sound of a heartbeat, accompanied by a cappella covers of love songs recorded by the Aliya herself. A strobe light, synchronized with the pulse of the heartbeat, amplifies the sensory experience, creating an atmosphere that feels both visceral and deeply intimate.
The work also evokes the memory of the maternal womb — the first space of shelter and belonging, where the mother’s heartbeat is among the earliest sounds perceived. In this context, the love songs function as lullabies, further reinforcing associations with care, tenderness, and emotional memory.
Through this immersive environment, In my heart explores themes of love, intimacy, memory, and corporeality. The heart, often understood as the most private symbolic interior, is here radically opened to others. The installation proposes a gesture of radical openness: an invitation for anyone to step inside, while simultaneously confronting their own vulnerability through the physical act of entering.
Textile, steel wire, strobe light, sound system
300 x 180 x 160cm