Zawj | زوج

SHED Projects Returns from Summer Break with Zawj | زوج, a One-Night Performance

CLEVELAND, OH — June 23, 2026 — SHED Projects is pleased to announce Zawj | زوج, a new collaborative work by artists Yasmeen Nematt Alla and Jillian Blackwell. Presented for one evening only on Saturday, August 1, 2026, the project marks the opening of SHED's fall season and brings together site specific sculpture, sound, language, and performance in a meditation on pairs, repetition, and the ways memory moves through generations.

Since 2024, Yasmeen Nematt Alla and Jillian Blackwell have worked together as an artist pair. Hailing from Egypt and Texas respectively, the two are interested in the points of convergence that emerge when beginning from very different starting points. Their collaborative practice inverts and upturns nostalgic, familial, and mundane experiences, linking them into constellations that project toward unknown futures. Together, they seek to know more fully what they do not know and to stand in the wonder of that not-knowing.

For Zawj | زوج, the artists draw upon the form of the crinkle-crankle wall, a zig-zagging architectural structure with origins in Ancient Egypt. Using material excavated from the grounds of SHED and remnants from the foundation of the building itself, they will construct a curving wall across the site. Embedded within the structure are two seats positioned in the style of a conversation chair, also known historically as a courting chair—furniture designed to hold two people facing one another while sharing a single form.

On the evening of August 1, these seats will be occupied by harpists Stephan Haluska and Celia van den Bogert, performing Lullaby, an original composition written by Mohammad Motevaselan specifically for the project. Through vibration, resonance, and song, the performance extends the artists' ongoing interest in translation, exchange, and the voices that continue to shape us. The performances will take place at 6PM, 7PM, and 8PM.

The artists write:

"Zawj | زوج (the Arabic term and slang for pairs) considers time as a boundary/portal/river/loop. Time pools in stones and slips through our fingers, repeats our mothers' hands in our own. Time has also been a fundamental component of this artwork’s creation. Throughout the creation of Zawj | زوج, we have also maintained a writing practice, epistolary in nature, in which we exchange two notebooks and respond to each others’ writing. 

Mohammad Motevaselan, a Vancouver-base composer, took our writings, and in response, composed Lullaby, which will be performed by Stephan Haluska and Celia van den Bogert. We are grateful to these three artists for their collaborative work with us, which extends larger concepts of duality, resonance, and interchange.

Time is a two-sided coin, we could toss in the air, watch it hit the ground, spin on its edge, fall one way or the other."

Presented as SHED Projects' first public program following its summer hiatus, Zawj | زوج reflects the organization's ongoing commitment to long-term research, artist-driven collaboration, and forms of gathering that blur distinctions between exhibition, performance, and conversation.

Event Information

Zawj | زوج
Yasmeen Nematt Alla & Jillian Blackwell

Featuring a performance of Lullaby by Mohammad Motevaselan
Performed by Stephan Haluska and Celia van den Bogert

Saturday, August 1, 2026 from 5–9 PM

With performances at 6PM, 7PM, and 8PM.

Location
SHED Projects | 3731 Pearl Rd, Cleveland, OH 44109

Parking
Lot located on Willowdale Ave., directly behind our address.

Public Transit
Buses 51 & 53 stop at Pearl & Broadview
Bus 71 stops at Pearl & Denison

Admission
Free and open to the public

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Press Contact: Gabrielle Banzhaf | Co-Founding Director and Chief Curator, SHED Projects
Email: gabrielle@shed-projects.org | Phone: (216) 266-0589 | Website: www.shed-projects.org

SHED Projects is a nonprofit organization based in Cleveland, Ohio, dedicated to fostering investigative activity at the intersection of art, family life, and contemporary urban habitation. Located in a historic landmark built in 1857, SHED produces exhibitions, printed matter, and opportunities for experimentation and knowledge-building around visual culture and human experience. SHED values art for its capacity to build empathy, connect people, and bring ideas to life through radical engagement with heritage and place.

Stay connected with SHED Projects for updates on future events and programming.