Ayyam Gallery’s upcoming show features a diverse group of work by photographer Sama Alshaibi. Rachel Aima speaks with the artist about her conceptual approach, the importance of the body and the fragility that binds us all together.
During the Nakba, a young Palestinian girl fled to Iraq. They thought the exodus was temporary; she would forever mourn the loss of their photographs. During the Iraq-Iran war the same girl—now married to an Iraqi—escaped Basra with her young children; photographs and Super-8 films were the only possessions she brought. They spent the next few years in extranational limbo moving around the region, yet she was determined not to repeat her parent’s experience of waiting for the war to be over, for a return that would never happen. They decamped to the USA, long overstaying their visas before finally having their deportation order in 2001. The woman’s daughter would grow up to become artist Sama Al Shaibi. The family never returned to Iraq.
