Reem Al Askari
Clarity, 2025
Oil on canvas
100 x 100 cm
Exhibitions
12 February 2025 / Katara Cultural Village, Building 5
Telling Tales - A Visual Reading of a Literary Text
Literature
Fear had inhabited my body for years. I tried to resist it, or so I thought I did.
I sat in a dark corner waiting for a helping hand that never will show
and will never show because I realized that I am invisible.
I began to swallow the darkness that surrounded me, thinking that it would end, but the more I swallowed the darkness, the more it grew and became darker. I stayed trying regardless of my bloated feeling, and before I realized, my skin began to stretch to accommodate the huge amount of darkness I had swallowed.
I felt sharp pain, it was oddly comforting as I firmly believed that I had deserved the pain and punishment.
I surrendered to the darkness that began to seep from the pores of my skin until it completely wrapped around me. I was filled with it and it was filled with me.
And it no longer mattered to know who swallowed the other.