A stirring love letter to the artist’s great-grandmother, Aisha, and a visual and poetic homage to an elderly generation of women across the Middle East and Northern Africa— the very matriarchies Al-Arashi descends from
This is the first artist’s book of Yemeni-Egyptian American photographer and filmmaker Yumna Al-Arashi (born 1988). Inspired by Al-Arashi’s great-grandmother, Aisha, the book is a homage to the lineage of women from the many-layered landscapes of the MENA region. Searching for an understanding of the tattoos that graced her great-grandmother’s body, Al-Arashi embraces the complexities of a symbolic matriarchal tradition. Unable to visit one of her places of origin, the war-stricken Yemen, Al-Arashi traveled through Northern Africa, where she met and photographed a diverse group of women belonging more or less to the same generation. By refusing the violence of selection and definition surrounding women’s practices, Al-Arashi publishes every single photograph from her journey in this 392 page monograph, moving the work into an ethereal cinematic celebration. Aisha includes Al-Arashi’s prose and poetry in which she reflects on memories of her great-grandmother. In her genre-stretching texts, Al-Arashi also speaks on colonial archives, intergenerational storytelling and the complexities of transnational female Arab identity in patriarchal, capitalist and imperialist societies.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
WePresent
Dalia Al-Dujaili
With such a long history of the camera being used as a tool of colonization and study in the area, [Aisha] is a step towards creating a more authentic archive.
British Journal of Photography
The images are vibrant and colourful and emit a quiet joy. The simplicity of the photography is refreshing, and Al-Arashi’s vulnerability is evident throughout as she attempts to challenge her own ideals of images and come to terms with the violent history of the medium.
Collector Daily
Olga Yatskevich
As a photobook, 'Aisha' is well conceived and thoughtfully designed... [A] joyful celebration of Southwest Asian and North African women, and a thoughtful tribute to the artist’s great-grandmother.
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Friday, April 17, from 6–8 PM, Spoonbill Books presents Arab-American photographer and filmmaker Yumna Al-Arashi in conversation with Lebanese-Canadian designer, writer, speaker and advocate Céline Semaan in celebration of Al-Arashi's recent photography book, Aisha, published by Edition Patrick Frey. continue to blog
Friday, April 24, from 7–8 PM, Lost City Books presents the Washington DC launch of Arab American photographer and filmmaker Yumna Al-Arashi's Aisha, published by Edition Patrick Frey. Al-Arashi returns to her hometown for this enlightening conversation with fellow Arab American photographer and creative director Farrah Skeiky. continue to blog
Yemeni-Egyptian American photographer and filmmaker Yumna Al-Arashi still remembers, with longing, the unique, faded, but still highly emblematic tattoos that marked her beloved great-grandmother Aisha’s face below her lips. Now imbued with mystery, these marks were once traditional among Yemeni women. Today, as that country continues to contend with years of ongoing war and conflict, the tradition itself has also faded, along with the possibility of understanding its true meaning—both personally to the women who have partaken, and to the culture in general. In this stunning 392-page first monograph, published and beautifully designed and printed by Edition Patrick Frey, Al-Arashi presents more than 300 photographs, made in homage to Aisha, on her own journey through Northern Africa, where many women of Aisha’s generation, identifying both as Amazigh and Arab, still bear the traces of this ancient practice. continue to blog
FORMAT: Pbk, 6.5 x 9.25 in. / 392 pgs / 320 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $65.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $90 ISBN: 9783907236680 PUBLISHER: Edition Patrick Frey AVAILABLE: 11/19/2024 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: NA LA AFR ME
A stirring love letter to the artist’s great-grandmother, Aisha, and a visual and poetic homage to an elderly generation of women across the Middle East and Northern Africa— the very matriarchies Al-Arashi descends from
This is the first artist’s book of Yemeni-Egyptian American photographer and filmmaker Yumna Al-Arashi (born 1988). Inspired by Al-Arashi’s great-grandmother, Aisha, the book is a homage to the lineage of women from the many-layered landscapes of the MENA region. Searching for an understanding of the tattoos that graced her great-grandmother’s body, Al-Arashi embraces the complexities of a symbolic matriarchal tradition. Unable to visit one of her places of origin, the war-stricken Yemen, Al-Arashi traveled through Northern Africa, where she met and photographed a diverse group of women belonging more or less to the same generation. By refusing the violence of selection and definition surrounding women’s practices, Al-Arashi publishes every single photograph from her journey in this 392 page monograph, moving the work into an ethereal cinematic celebration.
Aisha includes Al-Arashi’s prose and poetry in which she reflects on memories of her great-grandmother. In her genre-stretching texts, Al-Arashi also speaks on colonial archives, intergenerational storytelling and the complexities of transnational female Arab identity in patriarchal, capitalist and imperialist societies.
