“Bougainvillea of Jordan” is a sensory reconstruction of a place remembered not by its literal contours, but by the emotional intensity it leaves in the body. Built from layered collage, paper-mâché, salvaged fragments, and hand-torn textures, the work captures the shock of vivid bougainvillea against the sun-bleached facades of Amman and the surrounding cities. The piece is not a direct depiction; it is a memory-map — a record of the chromatic overstimulation, spatial fragmentation, and tactile impressions that accompany travel through Jordan’s architectural landscape.
The vivid pinks and saturated magentas bloom across the surface like heat rising off stone. Beneath them lie strata of paper, pigment, and textile that echo the region’s mosaic traditions, archaeological layers, and the contrasting rhythms of quiet courtyards and bustling streets. Every layer is intentionally uneven, mirroring the way a neurodivergent mind absorbs and stores sensory information: through accumulation, interruption, detail saturation, and emotional imprint.
The work honors Jordan not as a postcard image but as an experience of color, light, and place that cannot be held still. It becomes an emotional architecture — a site where memory, sensation, and the physical act of making converge. “Bougainvillea of Jordan” stands as one of the foundational pieces in the Sensory Archives series, defining the palette, material language, and conceptual direction of the larger body of work.
