© Yumna Al-Arashi I Am Whoever You Want Me to Be, 2018 from the series I Am Who I Am Who Am I

Huis Marseille is showing the first solo museum exhibition of work by the Yemeni-Egyptian-American artist Yumna Al-Arashi (1988, Washington D.C.). In Body as Resistance Al-Arashi makes use of a wide variety of media – photography, book and sculpture – to oppose the oppression and stereotyping of women that she observes worldwide. She focuses on the ways the Arab world is depicted, explores the legacy of colonialism in our thoughts, and contemplates matriarchal traditions that are all but lost. Al-Arashi’s work switches effortlessly between registers – sometimes playful and provocative, sometimes poetic, defiant or enraged – and more often than not, all of these things at once.

Yumna Al-Arashi began her career as a self-taught documentary photographer making images for National Geographic, The New York Times and The Guardian. However, she found herself conflicted about the power of image-makers like herself, who were in a position to present their subjects – whether intentionally or unintentionally – in a one-sided way. ‘Photography carries a kind of violence within it that’s revealed in the words we use for it, words like “capturing”, shooting”, and “taking”,’ she says. As a result her work became more political and conceptual.

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