Arab American Identities in Art

By Georgia Achilles

Alshaibi, Salma. Water Bearer II. 2019. Albumen print on Somerset Satin white 100% rag. 21 in x14 in. https://www.samaalshaibi.com/.

Alshaibi, Salma. Taʾshīr (Marking). 2010. Digital archival print. https://www.samaalshaibi.com/.

Alshaibi, Salma. Mā Ijtamaʿt Aydīnā ʿalā Qabḍah illā wa-Kānat Muʿaṭṭalah (What our hands joined was broken). 2014. Digital archival print. https:// www.samaalshaibi.com/.

Salma Alshaibi is an Iraqi-Palestinian artist who currently lives and works in the United States. Born in Basra, Iraq in 1973, her family was displaced by war and she spent her childhood in a state of migration. She considers herself a “child of war”, a label through which she investigates themes of othering, exile, and refuge. Her transcendent, poetic work carries political narratives that highlight the social and gendered impacts of conflict and immigration. She often features herself in her work, using her body as a “site of performance”. However, she does not identify these pieces as self portraits, “I’m a character in my work. My specific identity matters little, although I use my experiences, anxieties and curiosities to inform my work…The body in my work, which is my own body, is able to perform various issues, people and concepts”. Using her body as a symbol of countries and people, she is typically depicted in indiscernible landscapes as a reference to the sense of estrangement associated with migration.

“I never related to the “place” I was in, especially urban cities. They held no memory, and changed far too often for me to get used to them. Eventually, I connected my work to the natural world, using the desert especially as a metaphor for life. I find it to be a wonderful paradox, expressing change and static energy all at once. The desert shape-shifts constantly in the drifting wind, yet it is only cycling upon itself…I started to see the potential of the earth to mirror and solve complicated questions that the mind couldn’t find answers to.”

Alshaibi, Salma. Iihyaa’ – إحياء (Revival). 2023. Video. https:// www.samaalshaibi.com/.

Alshaibi, Salma. Generation After Generation. 2019. Screenprint. 92 x 208 inches. https://www.samaalshaibi.com/.