Artsadmin

Skip links

  1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to search

As Far As Isolation Goes

Tania El Khoury and Basel Zaraa

Person's arm stretched out against wooden fence background. There are pen drawings of stick people walking across their arm.
Photo by Basel Zaraa
2020

As Far As Isolation Goes is a collaboration between live artist Tania El Khoury and musician and street artist Basel Zaraa.

Reimagined for an online context during the UK’s coronavirus lockdown, the piece is built from their original collaboration entitled As Far As My Fingertips Take Me, in which El Khoury commissioned Zaraa to record a rap song inspired by the journey his sisters made from Damascus to Sweden.

In As Far As Isolation Goes, Zaraa and Tania worked together to create another iteration of their previous piece focused on mental and physical health experiences of refugees in the United Kingdom. Zaraa created a song inspired by conversations with friends and colleagues who have recently claimed refuge in UK. In this live-streamed, 1-on-1 performance, As Far As Isolation Goes uses touch, sound, and interactivity to bring audience members in contact with those faced with inhumane detention centres and a mental health system that disregard their political and emotional contexts.

As Far as Isolation Goes reaches further with a smaller idea. It has no political agenda, only an emotional and physical one, built on the idea that you are the canvas — and now, to some extent, the artist.”

New York Times

Work originally commissioned by Sick of the Fringe 2019. Online version commissioned by GIFT 2020. Produced by Artsadmin. 

For more information on this project, please contact Ania Obolewicz at ania@artsadmin.co.uk.

Song Conception: Basel Zaraa
Music Production: Peter Churchill
Vocals and Lyrics: Jazzar & Shamma
Wall Writing: Iqbal Steaz

Date Title Venue City
24–29 January 2023 Cultural Exchange Rate The Stamps Gallery University of Michigan
21–30 May 2021 As Far As Isolation Goes (Online) Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA)
24 February – 21 March 2021 As Far As Isolation Goes (Online) Fisher Center at Bard, New York
26 January – 20 February 2021 As Far As Isolation Goes (Online) Academy for the Visual & Performing Arts, Texas
9–11 October 2020 As Far As Isolation Goes (Online) Journeys Festival
9 September – 4 October 2020 As Far As Isolation Goes (Online) NYUAD, Zoom Abu Dhabi
1–3 May 2020 As Far As Isolation Goes (Online) Gateshead International Festival of Theatre
Person's arm stretched out against wooden fence background. There are pen drawings of stick people walking across their arm.
Photo by Basel Zaraa
Top