"In Defiance" is an installation built around a taped interview with my mother in which she recounts visiting the resort town of Jericho as a youngster and her happy memories of the place. Her stories go against the expected Palestinian narrative of war or suffering. This is an assertion of autonomy over the manner of one's own visibility. Palestinians may choose to amplify the injustices occurring under Zionist oppression in their art, or they may make the equally "political" decision to not use that suffering as a sort of spectacle for the Western gaze. Rather, by asserting the Palestinian experience of joyful or even banal life, we assert our humanity. To quote Mourid Barghoutti "because he is a living creature before being the son of the eight o'clock news."