Lara Baladi
Perfumes & Bazaar. 2005
Photographic montage, 500 x 248 cm
Justice for the Mother. 2007
Photographic montage, 560 x 248 cm
About the two works
The two photomontages Perfumes & Bazaar and Justice for the Mother are trompe l'oeils of walls in a living-room covered with wallpaper showing on one side a teeming garden of earthly delights and on the other a jungle. They are filled with iconography inspired by representations of the Chateau de Versailles, waterfall light boxes – direct reference to a "made-in-China" aesthetic – and photomontage posters of idealised landscapes. From out of these landscapes populated with a multiplicity of objects and people, imagery of the jungle, the wilderness, war and sexuality, Baladi’s father rides his motorbike: away from his youth, his roots and the politics of the Middle East. He rides towards the viewer, but also towards the commanding photograph of the artist's mother, here representing the original paradise, the womb.
© From the catalogue of Sharjah Biennial 8, 2007.
See also:
Lara Baladi
work at Expo Centre Sharjah
© Photo: Haupt & Binder, Universes in Universe
Teil 1 der Fototour durch die Sharjah Biennale 8, 4. April - 4. Juni 2007. Direktorin der Biennale: Hoor Al Qasimi. Künstlerischer Leiter: Jack Persekian. Kuratoren: Mohammed Kazem, Eva Scharrer, Jonathan Watkins. 79 Beteiligte.