With a bemused smile, I walked into the gallery-turned-lingerie-store that is Diala Khasawnih's second solo exhibition- her first having been in a more traditional format: canvases on four walls.

Her original venue for this installation/exhibit was an actual lingerie shop in Jebel Amman but circumstances turned to test her resourcefulness when the shop owner backed out of the project four days before the opening. She quickly shifted the venue to Makan in Jebel Lwebdeh, to open as planned on the 21st of May.

JoCr8: What was the story or recurrent theme that inspired your work in this exhibition? Is it merely about support, or more about restraint? (Because you mention in the notes that accompany your exhibit that the first bras were "engineered" to flatten breasts.)

DK: I owe my main inspiration for this project to the shop where mama took me as a child to get my first bra. The shop, called Hindam, was on the second circle and it was a really traumatic experience, which through by-chance conversations with friends and women I knew I realised is a common experience for many. Hindam still exists but it moved. It all began with an e-mail. I sent an e-mail to my female friends asking for a "First bra from Hindam" story. I got many replies - not all Hindam and not all first (bras) - but all about bras and I realised that the bra has so many meanings and connotations.

By the way, the woman whose shop I was going to display my project at initially who backed out four days before the opening told me the story of her corset-like bra. It was only after she had her second son did she shift to a 'real' bra.

JoCr8: You obviously gathered a lot of material to research, but when it came to execution, what, in particular, triggered your process? Please tell me about the "portraits through bras" idea (especially the pin-cushion one and the one that looks like it has been cut-up!)

DK: The project (research and execution time) spans over the past two and a half years and it changed as I gathered the different material. It started with the story I mentioned above and the e-mails, then I got fascinated with the bras themselves and started my collection. The turning point was that I wrote it all down as a project in order to apply for the Culture Resource (Al Mawred Al-Thaqafy) production awards, which turned it from an idea to a project of some definition. I got an award and accordingly I set a date for the exhibit. Although the idea did change further with time and with new material, I was thinking now in installation form and in exhibition boundaries.

I have been interested in public art and wanted this to be a public art experience, and so I found a shop and agreed with the owner to have the installation on display in the display windows of the shop for passers by to see. However, she (the owner) changed her mind, as I mentioned above, and I moved it to Makan. So even in the last few days before the exhibit, the concept was being shaped.

I had the shop idea to refer to all the time and in came all the stories, so each bra displayed as if an object in the shop started to hold a concept, a reference, etc... from these stories. I collected stories and bras from women who were willing to share their own experiences with me. As you said, each bra was a portrait, of the women's character, choice, experience and so on.

The "pin-cushion" one: this bra portrays the pain and discomfort many women associate with the bra. The "cut-up" one: it is a bra I found in the used clothes market in the Abdali Friday market, and it was really attractive for the obvious reasons. My display of it is a contradiction of how sexy it is, as white cotton (which she stuffed it with- ed.) and simplicity are not often associated with sexy and flashy and the harshness of the hint of Sado-masochism the bra holds.

JoCr8: Why did you take the Hindam shop in particular, even though many stories did not take place there?

Hindam is the shop that mama took me to for my first bra and through chats with friends, I realised that many women my age and a bit older went to Hindam as it was one of the very few (lingerie) shops, particularly boutique-like, in Amman.

The different stories came after my initial interest in Hindam, so I maintained Hindam as my inspirational point; the story that started the whole thing going.

JoCr8: Did you need to really reassure women that their identities would be kept hidden? Do you think most of them were more comfortable in sharing their stories because it was via the e-mail platform?

Many women asked me about their names and identities, and if they were going to be kept private and some said that they wanted that (while) others said they did not care. I chose to keep everyone anonymous; firstly because it is respectful of their privacy and secondly because these experiences are shared by many and are not exclusively owned by (the) narrator.

Many of the stories I have I got via e-mail but many women told me their stories face to face. Again, I have been obsessed with this for a while and this project was the object of many discussions and very often the reason for many intimate talks and conversations. Many women immediately volunteer their own story when they know I am working on this project.

JoCr8: Coming to the aesthetic approach, where is your obsession with the "kitsch" stemming from? (I also recall the "Diana" installation you collaborated with Hanan Al-Khalil for, where you took a tackily-decorated truck-cabin into the terrace of a creative space in Lwebdeh) I noticed you didn't have any big-brand, sleek designs in the exhibition...maybe because you refuse the catalogue portrayal of "models" ...comments on this?

I confess my work's association to kitsch, however, I must also confess that some of the bras were as big a brand as there is. The bras on display were of all sorts.

I had a comment on bra models, which you seem to have read. Even my original proposal project included posters of models who were "real women."

As for kitsch, I think that things which fall under kitsch are often a lot of fun and very often beautiful. I was lucky to notice that and accordingly use it in my work, and very often in my "real" life.

JoCr8: So, you are in a way, trying to encourage a more empathetic view upon the mouldable parts of a woman's body, e.g. when you mention that the two breasts are never the same size or shape (asymmetry, imperfection)...right?

I do not think I was aiming at generating an empathetic view as much as drawing a picture of reality versus the commercial image. The perfect bodies, the perfect breasts, the happy women, the absolute comfort all portrayed in the advertisements of and around bras show a limited side of things, if at all accurate.
Most women are uncomfortable in a bra, and not because they are that way or another- it is actually because these things (bras) should either seriously develop or seriously be burnt like make-up, plastic surgery, high heels, corsets, nylon stockings and so much more that are really harmful and crazy yet are really still part of our daily life. To look pretty has become a tedious, painful and harmful -almost dangerous- task for the modern woman.

JoCr8: Anything else you want to add about feminism, seeking the feminine, portraying the feminine? Can you recount the things that inspire you...or the artists who you feel gave you an idea/way of seeing to pass on/develop?

I think there are answers for this part on feminism inside my other answers. This exhibit is about bras, about women, about the female body, about the female experience.
I am sure many artists' work inspires me and their influence is translated into my work. I cannot name anyone in particular for this project; yet expression/creativity in general is the result of an accumulation of seeing, feeling and knowing etc The pool from which an artist gets their ideas/inspiration is a large, ever-expanding one of multi-layered heritage.
Furthermore, they are the things of daily life like which inspire me. So much design work goes into a bra, sometimes you hold one and it is really a work of art, for example.