SINGLE SAUDI WOMEN BY WASMA MANSOUR
Organisation: Hardy Tree Gallery
Time: 01 June 2012 10:00am - 30 June 2012 6:00pm
Place: Hardy Tree Gallery, 119 Pancras Road, London NW1
Hardy Tree Gallery Presents
Single Saudi women by wasma mansour
An exhibition exploring the lives and multiple identities of Saudi women living in London.
Single Saudi Women is the culmination of a four-year research project by London-based Saudi photographer Wasma Mansour. Pictorial conventions in global mass media exhibit recurring visual tropes which stereotype and essentialise the portrayal of Saudi women. As a result, such generalisations have suppressed Saudi women’s efforts in reconciling with their identities and asserting their sense of individualism.
Mansour employs a multidirectional photographic approach, which allows her to respond to and capture an unfolding reality and to observe the ways in which the subjects’ experiences are managed and fashioned. Performance and objects become signifiers to these women’s attempts to forge new identities, that to varying degrees align and/or resist an encompassing Saudi identity. The photograph is used as an observational tool and an apparatus to encourage dialogue about the representation of the self as a public and private figure. Furthermore, this reflexive aspect has also highlighted the implication of the artist herself, as both researcher and subject.
Part of the London Festival of Photography 2012
1 - 30 June 2012 | 10:00-18:00
Hardy Tree Gallery
119 Pancras Road
London
NW1 1UN
Free
RELATED EVENT
Wasma Mansour and Olivia Arther will be participating in a discussion about photographing Saudi women during the one-day festival symposium.
Saturday 9 June 2012 | 09:30-16:00
Kings Place
90 York Way
London
N1 9AG
Image above: © Wasma Mansour