Alae, Khyiam, Lebanon, from the SHE series
Rania Matar, American (born in Lebanon), born 1964
2019
Archival pigment print
3/8
Sheet: 19 3/16 × 24 in. (48.8 × 61 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Edward, Julia, Victoria, and Christopher Hansen Fund for Photographic Acquisitions and the Olivia H. Parker and John O. Parker '58 Acquisition Fund
© Rania Matar
2022.45.3
Geography
Place Imaged: Khyiam, Eastern Mediterranean, Lebanon, West Asia, Asia
Period
21st century
Object Name
Photograph
Research Area
Photograph
On view
Label
Wearing a chador, Alae has immersed herself in the waters of the Khyiam river in the south of Lebanon, the dark fabric contrasting dramatically with the waters and rocks that surround her. This young woman adopts a pose reminiscent of Shakespeare’s tragic Ophelia, a young woman whose life is deeply affected by the conflicts in her region. In the series SHE, Rania Matar features portraits of young women in their early twenties in Lebanon and the United States. Matar immigrated to the United States from Lebanon when she was the age of her subjects, and through this work she examines the liminal space between adolescence and young womanhood.
From the 2024 exhibition An Instant Out of Time: Shaping a Collection, curated by Alisa Swindell, Associate Curator of Photography
Exhibition History
An Instant Out of Time: Shaping a Collection, Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 20-July 21, 2024.
Provenance
Obscura Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico; sold to present collection, 2022.
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