Sophia Al-Maria: Bitch Omega

From right to left: Sophia Al-Maria, Rape Gaze (2014) collage on canvas, 198 x 320 x 4 cm; Torturous Journey (2014) HD video, 11′, color, sound, accompanying Rape Gaze. Installation view, Sophia Al-Maria, Bitch Omega, Julia Stoschek Collection, Düsseldorf. Courtesy of Alwin Lay.

With text by Rubal Al-Sweel, arts and culture writer and researcher.

Throughout the film, Al-Maria returns to probing history; who claims and propagates it, and spotlights the noxious nature of internalized narratives. In one slow-moving scene, a robotic Siri-like voiceover recites a passage from Edward Said’s After the Last Sky (1999), “We are frequently unable either to speak the truth of our experience or to make it heard. We do not usually control the images that represent us. An additional problem is that our language, Arabic, is unfamiliar in the West, and belongs to a civilization both misunderstood and maligned.”