Yumna Al-Arashi as Mercury

Bronze statue of a nude female figure balancing on one foot atop a wave-like base in a small formal garden. She raises one arm upward and holds a staff with a serpent in the other hand. The sculpture stands in front of a historic brick building with an arched doorway and tall windows, framed by trimmed hedges and blooming white flowers. — **Yumna Al-Arashi as Mercury** Self-Portrait as Mercury, in the museum garden of Huis Marseille, Museum for Photography

Yumna Al-Arashi as Mercury

In Body as Resistance Al-Arashi makes use of a wide variety of media – photography, book and sculpture – to oppose the oppression and stereotyping of women that she observes worldwide. She 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.

In an elegant arabesque, the Roman god Mercury leans on a current of wind, rendered as upward-streaming bronze rays. The artist Yumna Al-Arashi establishes a connection between herself and Mercury. In Roman mythology, the god of commerce and thieves is also somewhat mischievous. Her work expresses a longing to be embraced by society, a feeling that is far from self-evident for someone who has lived in the diaspora since birth.

Location

Huis Marseille, Museum for Photography

Keizersgracht 401
1016 EK Amsterdam

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Yumna Al-Arashi as Mercury