In Start Again Annabel Daou reflects on the flattening effects of traumatic events, which violently interrupted her childhood during the Lebanese Civil War. Her piece incorporates ink and acrylic on hand cut microfiber paper, a fine, synthetic, and highly breathable material that is primarily made of polyester. The process of repeatedly marking and cutting into this material to produce interlocking outlines embodies the struggle to negotiate past traumas and possibilities for repair. The need to “start again,” resembles the perpetual efforts of cities like Beirut to cope with the aftermath of violence. The piece reconsiders the experience of trauma not as a singular event but as a dispersed experience permeating the daily rhythms of a larger social body.