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.

Biography

Wasma Mansour was born in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in 1980 and is now a London-based photographer in the process of completing a practice-based research degree at the London College of Communication.  Her photographic practice focuses on 'human to space' relationships; this research project specifically explores the construction and reflection of the multiple identities of single Saudi women through the medium of their own private spaces and possessions.
wmansour.com

Related events

Wasma Mansour and Olivia Arther will be participating in a discussion about photographing Saudi women during the one-day festival symposium.

Inside Out - Reflections on the Public and the Private
10am - 5pm, Saturday 9 June, King's Place

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  Images © Wasma Mansour
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  Hardy Tree Gallery