The Third Half Passport Collection: M.E. Transit is a series of altered passport scans belonging to different generations of Barakeh's family. The collection reflects various conflicts that have occurred in the Middle East since the 1920s and depicts her family’s mobility since 1948. Political divisions are illustrated through a series of official stamps, visas, and signatures of the controlling authorities. These divisions reference the British and French Mandates, the Palestinian Nakba, the Lebanese Civil War of 1975–1990, and the Lebanese Cedar Revolution. The collection includes a fictive passport that permits entry into the Third Half – a conceptual space devised by the artist, in which individuals could exist outside of factionalized communities.
Third Half Passport Collection: M.E. Transit, 2012; archival inkjet prints; 67 x 126 inches (installation); 21 x 30 inches (each).
Corresponding labels (left)
Corresponding labels (right)
Third Half Passport Collection – British Mandate Passport, Bio; archival inkjet print; 21 x 30 inches.
Third Half Passport Collection – British Mandate Passport, Jaffa House; archival inkjet print; 21 x 30 inches.
Third Half Passport Collection – Transjordanian Passport, Bio; archival inkjet print; 21 x 30 inches.
Third Half Passport Collection – Transjordanian Passport, British & French Mandates; archival inkjet print; 21 x 30 inches.
Third Half Passport Collection – Lebanese Passport, Born in Beirut, Bio (forged); archival inkjet print; 21 x 30 inches.
Third Half Passport Collection – Lebanese Passport, Born in Beirut, Civil War; archival inkjet print; 21 x 30 inches.
Third Half Passport Collection – Lebanese Passport, Born in Jaffa, Bio; Lebanese Passport, Bio; archival inkjet print; 21 x 30 inches.
Third Half Passport Collection – Lebanese Passport, Born in Jaffa, 1982 Israeli Invasion; archival inkjet print; 21 x 30 inches.
Third Half Passport Collection – Lebanese Passport, Bio; archival inkjet print; 21 x 30 inches.
Third Half Passport Collection – Lebanese Passport, 2005 Cedar Revolution; archival inkjet print; 21 x 30 inches.
Third Half Passport Collection – Third-Half Passport, Bio; archival inkjet print; 21 x 30 inches.
Third Half Passport Collection – Palestinian Passport, Bio; archival inkjet print; 21 x 30 inches.