SELF-PORTRAITS I (2002 - 2003)
Self-portraits I series (2002 - 2003)
The Self-Portraits series derives from a desire to communicate and express Shadi’s concerns with personal and social issues of contemporary life, particularly, the struggle to understand and articulate cultural identity. In this series, Shadi uses photography as a medium for self-expression rather than mere photographic representation in order to express the complexity of her feelings towards her subject matter. Working directly with film negatives, she creates “negative collages” from which her final photographic prints are made; these negative collages are made by cutting, scratching, applying glue and then printing from reassembled and manipulated negatives. The emotional impetus for defacing and distorting some of the negatives convey the anger and discomfort Shadi felt at the time; this process suggests her ill-ease with two identities to which she felt no clear sense of belonging. The viewer becomes witness to her struggles to create and compose a dualistic identity that results from a crossing and clashing of cultures.