New SMoCA exhibit 'Silsila' explores desert, water

During the 14th century, explorer and scholar Ibn Batūtah set out on a bold trek, traveling through the Middle East, north Africa and the Maldives.

Artist Sama Alshaibi,  a political refugee of Iraqi-Palestinian descent, learned of his travels in a book and grew interested in his journeys. Over the course of six years, she worked to retrace his path and documented 15 predominantly Muslim countries. She completed her project this spring in Morocco, where Batūtah started his expedition.

Alshaibi's videos and photos from her travels are presented in "Silsila," showing for the first time in the U.S. at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. The exhibit opens June 4.

Alshaibi is an associate professor of art at the University of Arizona, living part time in Tucson and Palestine. For several years, she lived in the Middle East and north Africa doing political work, and it was exhausting. She decided to immerse herself more deeply into her art and tell stories from the region through the lens, but from a different perspective than many artists working in those areas of conflict.

"Batūtah's own crossings made me think of the original inhabitants of the desert region that pretty much surrounds all of the Middle East and north Africa," she said. "His journey imitates my own life because I've moved so much. I thought about resources being an issue of conflict, and having to vie and compete for limited resources."

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Alshaibi began using her school breaks, vacation and sabbatical time to take the trips, all the while thinking about the desert and its endangered water resources. The Arabic word "silsila" means link, and the theme is prevalent in many ways in the work, which explores the bond humans have with one another, with the natural environment and with the spiritual world. The artist often uses her body in her works as a signifier of "a motherland, the people, community or issue," she said. In these works, the land is the protagonist and she is a performer within the spaces as a "teacher, guide or mystic."

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The videos are housed in black boxes and placed on plinths. One, titled "Al-Tarīqah (The Path)," shows mirror images of Alshaibi walking through the desert in different shots. The video was taken in the Tunisian salt flats in north Africa. During her travels, she sometimes she had an assistant with her. Other times, such as this instance, she was by herself. Alshaibi hired a driver who knew the region to take her to a remote area and asked him to come back for her.

"Most tourists come out to that area to take a look at where 'Star Wars' was shot," she said. "I walked for quite some time and came across a sandy space that was incredible. The landscape was soft and marshmallow-like. There was nothing around except you could see the border of Libya in the distance. There was a line that was actually a naturally occurring salt lake underneath, where the Earth is physically separating."

Alshaibi said the experience was meditative and allowed her to be open to an experience in which "life is taking you where it needs you to be."

The title piece is an inkjet print showing Alshaibi standing in the water, her reflection crystal clear. This was shot in Egypt's Siwa Oasis, and was her third time visiting Egypt. She went before and after the revolution, and she saw the struggles. A friend of a friend was able to get her to Siwa, and a driver who was only 11 years old took her to a salt lake.

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"They don't speak Arabic there so there was a lot of hand gesturing, and he finally realized I wanted to see water," she said. "It was the afternoon and nobody was there except for a little hut that serves tea in dirty glasses. The lake was completely a mirror. I had no assistance so I turned the camera on with a remote sensor."

She saw how perfectly her image was reflected in the water, and it was representative of the exhibit's title, "Silsila." With self-reflection comes the understanding of people who are different than we are, and that links us to each other, Alshaibi said.

Alshaibi is excited for "Silsila" to be shown in the Southwest, and believes viewers will have a special understanding of the exhibition and what communities across the world are facing.

"I'm connected to the desert," she said. "With the political issues here, of being on the border with issues, and the issues of water, the audience here in the Southwest is a sympathetic one. They understand a lot of issues that inform my work, and I felt compelled to speak a more universal language.

"These larger issues connect us all."

Reach the reporter at kellie.hwang@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8690. Follow at twitter.com/KellieHwang

'Sama Alshaibi: Silsila'

When: Saturday, June 4, to Sunday, Sept. 18. Museum is closed on Mondays.

Where: Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, 7374 E. Second St.

Admission: $7, $5 for students, free for members and age 15 and younger. Free admission on Thursdays and after 5 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

Details: 480-874-4666, smoca.org.