Rebecca Anne Proctor speaks with the artist who recently embarked upon her Dubai artist residency.
Through her work in Muslim communities Zohra also met one of her main protagonists: Zullaiha. Completely veiled and wearing the nikab, a decision she made herself—not her husband, she stresses. “I realised that while these women were of the same religion they lived it entirely different and I tried to emphasise how I perceived them and their life in the images that I made.” For each, the veil symbolised a different story.
Zohra’s personal history is in stark contrast to the lives of the women in Harmattan Tales. At the 2017 Armory Show, the artist presented Unraveled Thread with Seattle’s Mariane Ibrahim Gallery, a work that garnered her the inaugural Presents Prize. In the piece, Zohra rendered her own personal narrative through photography and fabric-based works and stitched together cloth that belonged to members of her family, now living in separate countries.
