Thresholds Between Worlds brings together a series of glass sculptures and Tatreez works by Najah Alboushi that merge the architecture and plant life of Oakland and Damascus. Through her hybrid constructions, the artist aims to eliminate and expand the borders between her two homes. Choosing plants that grow in the Bilad as Sham/Levant region and the Bay Area, Alboushi works alongside Syrian poet Nizar Kabbani, who describes Damascus through vines of jasmine and the defense of his homeland through protecting people and a rose alike.

Alboushi’s structures reference traditional Levantine architecture, clothing, and craft, the symmetry found in Islamic art forms, as well as breeze blocks and the recurring motif of stacked bricks. She merges these elements with fantastical stories and ancient and modern amulets of protection against evil, such as Star Trek’s “live long and prosper,” to build fragile, speculative forms——protective sites, imagined places and futures, and portals.