Sand Rushes In: the desert, the border, the body in the work of Sama Alshaibi

In her first Center of Creative Photography artist talk since joining the Photography faculty at the School of Art (University of Arizona) in 2006, multi-media artist and Associate Professor Sama Alshaibi will discuss the major themes of her work. Her evolution as an artist concerned with the body’s complicated relationship to land through a compromised nationalistic lens has moved towards universal spaces of conflict. Connecting borders, bodies and site through allegorical devices and a variety of media (through video, installation, sculpture, photography and social media platforms), Alshaibi’s work suggests the repeated and recycled history of domination, power and control. Alshaibi’s talk will also reflect upon her significant career successes over the past year: her participation at the 55th Venice Biennial and FotoFest 2014 Biennial, the upcoming new work in the inaugural Honolulu Biennial, her soon to be published monograph with Aperture Foundation as well as being awarded University of Arizona’s 1885 Distinguished Scholar title and grant, her third major teaching award in her years at University of Arizona.