Homeland Insecurity continues from earlier animations in an ongoing investigation of mechanisms of war. The animation draws upon current events with cotton as a core resource in the economics and spread of Empire from the Islamic Era, through the Crusaders, through slavery and into the present. The colonizing Centaur––a central figure in Barakeh’s works––originates from a 1933 archival image captured in Jaffa Square, depicting mounted soldiers of the British Mandate of Palestine (1920–1948), confronting Arab demonstrators. The photograph's graininess merges the horse and its British rider, inspiring the concept of the Centaur as the symbol of colonization. The Horse––an avatar of the artist’s own body with the head of a horse––depicts colonized subjects, embodying agency and resistance.
Homeland Insecurity, 2016; animation; 9:50 minutes.