“Aucun homme n’a reçu de la nature le droit de commander aux autres. La liberté est un présent du ciel, et chaque individu de la même espèce a le droit d’en jouir aussitôt qu’il jouit de la raison.” — Denis Diderot, Autorité Politique, Encyclopédie I AM WITH HER is the first in a series of twenty-eight tapestries. This ambitious project, The River of Life, a title borrowed from the Book of Revelations, is inspired by the renowned medieval ‘Tapisserie de l’Apocalypse’ (Apocalypse Tapestry). Born from a collaboration between Lara Baladi and Bokja Design, the first tapestry of the series focuses on the word Nature and was conceived for Lost in the Right Direction, an exhibition curated by Art Design Lebanon in the interior the Deir El Kalaa ruins (The Monastery of The Fortress). Each tapestry is Bokja’s interpretation–via embroidered textiles– of Baladi’s assemblages of images and texts. Once completed, the series will unfold over more than seventy meters to reveal twenty-eight illustrated words, one for each letter of the Arabic alphabet. As we near what scientists and conservationists call the ‘Sixth Mass Extinction,’ questions surrounding the human impact on earth arise, prompting us to reevaluate our relationship with the environment. Gazing into a future of hope, the artwork draws on the iconography of past and present protests and revolutions and the representation of history. A reflection on the Anthropocene epoch we live in, the River of Life is a commentary on our present-day condition, which proposes a renewed and more integrated relationship with her, Mother Earth.