Yumna Al-Arashi – Let Me In

Al-Arashi

Yumna Al-Arashi focuses on the ways the Arab world is depicted, explores the legacy of colonialism in our thoughts, and contemplates matriarchal traditions that are all but lost. Al-Arashi’s work switches effortlessly between registers – sometimes playful and provocative, sometimes poetic, defiant or enraged – and more often than not, all of these things at once.

Sculpture

With Self-Portrait as Mercury, Al-Arashi positions herself within a tradition of classical sculpture historically reserved for emperors, gods, and military power. By inhabiting this visual language, she claims a space from which many bodies have long been excluded.

Series

The sculpture resonates with her series Let Me In (2024–2025), presented in the Garden House, in which Al-Arashi reflects on visibility, belonging, and absence in public space. Who is represented there, and in what way? And, just as importantly: who remains invisible?

Desire

Her work articulates a desire to be fully received into society, a feeling far from self-evident for someone who has lived in diaspora since birth.