Orientalism - a term originally coined by Edward Said. The word, in its essence, related to a colonialist depiction of brown and black bodies. In Shedding Skin, my intent was to lure viewers into a space using a depiction of women we’ve seen before: a hammam scene with nude Arab women. Once in this space, I used a film to engage viewers in a slightly uncomfortable fashion.
For women from these regions, these spaces are sacred. They’re healing spaces. Coming together in them is a communal means of self-care and of one another. The photographs and film became a reclaiming of an orientalized image in order to address our own bias and misunderstandings, and to take back space.
