SCREEN MEMORIES considers the experience of mass media in the Arab world for a generation of artists who grew up in the early 2000s, at the tail end of network television’s popularity. Using video and sound, artists Yara Asmar, Mona Benyamin, and Huda Takriti reference and reimagine the media they grew up with in new forms.

The term “screen memory,” originally coined by Sigmund Freud, refers to the creation of a “screen” to mask an unpleasant childhood memory. This exhibition uses the term as a jumping-off point: the artists draw on visual culture and media moments that they encountered on screen, including the Gulf Wars, popular children’s shows such as Mini Studio, and news coverage of the Second Intifada. Playing with nostalgia but insisting on resonance with the present, these works surface the interplay between broadcast media and psychological experience.

SCREEN MEMORIES is a two-venue exhibition curated by May Makki, Abrons Arts Center’s 2024-25 Curatorial AIRspace Resident, and presented in partnership by Artists Alliance Inc and Abrons Arts Center. The exhibition will remain on view at Abrons through April 14, 2025