I’m interested in the societal impact of unequal power relations between the West and the Middle East, and how that domination is articulated through photographs. By using Albumen, Photogravure, and Gum historical printing processes of the late 19th and early 20th century in my project “Carry Over,” I am evoking a near-century in which the West controlled the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Photography studios were largely run by Western ‘Orientalist’ photographers, who fashioned a fantasy of the unknown ‘oriental’ woman by framing her as either a naked, exotic other or a primitive, pious unknown hiding behind a veil. “Carry Over recalls” and subverts these historical portraits that featured MENA women carrying vessels of water on their heads while lounging with other ‘oriental’ props. I aim to amplify the physical burden of their unjust representation by exaggerating the objects carried over the head. The sculptures are physically larger than the woman’s body or are stacked objects that form a whole. In one photograph, the once compulsorily ceramic water jug is now shaped like a massive wasp’s nest or a grenade and is hoisted high above the subject’s head. Dressed in all white, the figure depicts the Herculean task of surviving conflict. The implication is that the subject not only is the bearer of the absurd and irrational but conversely, that in her total isolation, she is transformed from an object of passivity into an active body that sustains and supplies oneself. She is inscribing through her own body, a mechanism of survival.

“Carry Over” was supported in part by the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (Beirut), Arizona Commission of the Arts (Phoenix), the Project Development 1st Prize Award from The Center (Santa Fe), and Artpace International Artist Residency (San Antonio)

The project is printed with three different techniques: Albumen, Photogravure with blind embossing, and Gumoils

Albumen print on Somerset Satin white 100% rag, 21 in x14 in, unique prints

Photogravure print, blind embossing with transparent ink relief rolled on Stonehenge White 100% rag, 25 in x 20 in, ed. 8 + 3APs

Gumoil print on Somerset Satin white 100% rag, 20.5 in × 13.75 in, unique prints

Text by Artist