Carry Over

Carry Over examines how Orientalist photography helped construct and circulate fantasies of Middle Eastern and North African women during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Working with albumen, photogravure, gum oil, blind embossing, and sculptural props, Alshaibi reenters the visual language of the studio portrait to expose how photography participated in systems of domination, extraction, and desire.

The project recalls historical images of women posed with vessels, textiles, and other so-called Oriental props, but shifts their logic. In Alshaibi’s photographs, the carried objects become excessive and physically impossible: a vessel becomes a wasp’s nest or grenade, stacked forms tower over the body, and objects associated with service or ornament become signs of pressure, endurance, and threat.

Rather than repeating the passive figure produced by the Orientalist archive, Carry Over transforms the subject into an active body negotiating the burdens placed upon her. The work asks what histories are carried through representation, and how the body might refuse or survive them.

Carry Over was supported in part by the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture, the Arizona Commission on the Arts, the Project Development First Prize Award from CENTER Santa Fe, and Artpace International Artist Residency.

Carry Over, 2018-2019
Printing processes include albumen, photogravure with blind embossing, and gum oil.

Albumen print on Somerset Satin white 100% rag, sizes vary., unique prints
Photogravure print with blind embossing and transparent ink relief rolled on Stonehenge White 100% rag, 25 × 20 in., edition of 8 + 3 APs
Gum oil print on Somerset Satin white 100% rag, 20.5 × 13.75 in., unique prints