Doves, 2008

by Jowhara AlSaud

Description
This image from Jowhara AlSaud's series Out of Line comments on censorship in Saudi Arabia and its effects on visual communication. There are regions in Saudi Arabia where lines are still drawn across throats in photographs (figuratively cutting the head off.) Faces are blurred on billboards. Skirts and sleeves are crudely lengthened with black markers on women's outfits in magazines. Art, as everything else here, is governed by Islamic law. Figurative work is still considered by many to be sinful.

AlSaud began applying the language of the censors to personal photographs, making line drawings, omitting faces, and keeping only the essentials. This preserved the anonymity of my subjects, which allowed me more freedom as it is still taboo to have one's portrait hanging in a gallery or someone else's home. When reduced to sketches, the images achieved enough distance from the original photographs that neither subjects nor censors could find them objectionable. They became autonomous, minimal narratives. In etching these drawings back into film and printing them in an analogue darkroom, she points to the malleability of the medium before even the advances and accessibility of digital manipulation. It becomes a highly coded and self-reflexive language.
Details

C-Print
Image Size: 11 x 14 inches
Paper Size: 11 x 14 inches
Edition of 25 + 5 Artist Proofs
Signed and numbered by the artist

About the Artist

Jowhara AlSaud (b. 1978, Saudi Arabia) received a BA in Film Theory from Wellesley College and an MFA from the School of The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in 2004. AlSaud was runner-up for the 2008 Aperture Foundation Portfolio Prize. She has exhibited her work internationally in group and solo shows in Europe and the Middle East, most recently at art fairs Paris Photo, Art Palm Beach, the Aleppo 10th International Photo Festival in Syria, Scope NYC, Pulse NYC, Art Dubai, Schneider Gallery in Chicago and at the Berlin and Shanghai Biennales. Her work is part of collections across Europe, the US, and the Middle East. She splits her time between New York and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

You May Also Like