Family Photo
Ghinwa Yassine
(2012)
Family Photo is a moving image that consecutively unravels two depictions. The first is of the artist’s mother with her three children when she was 28 years old, the second is of the artist herself when she was the same age. However, instead of children, Yassine’s portrait manifests as surrounded by three objects that gradually appear and disappear, including a basil plant, a pot for Arabic coffee, and a kids toy in the shape of an elephant. Taking the place of the fading children, these objects simulate what the artist often carries during her travels and relocations. The morphing between the two images takes place at a slow speed allowing viewers to contemplate the nuances, differences, and similarities.
This work is part of a larger project titled Home, Suspended (2012), which is inspired by the unsettling experience of travelling and displacement transformed into a feeling of suspension. Family Photo indicates the leftovers of an identity that is constantly shifting every time it faces transitions in geography, time, and environment. It further raises questions on the generational differences that are influenced by cultural conceptions and the situation of young women’s marital status in today’s socio-economic system.