b. 1994, Manama Bahrain; lives and works between Bahrain and New York City Mashael Alsaie is a multimedia artist and photographer. She weaves together Bahraini mythologies, science fiction, and ecofeminism...
b. 1994, Manama Bahrain; lives and works between Bahrain and New York City
Mashael Alsaie is a multimedia artist and photographer. She weaves together Bahraini mythologies, science fiction, and ecofeminism in her exploration of the Adhari Spring myth, serving as a commentary on collective consciousness and ecological narratives.
In her serigraphic photography series Adhari Mythopoeia X, XI, Alsaie breathes life into the Ain Adhari, an iconic Bahraini freshwater spring that ran dry in the 1980s. She blends historical accounts and imagination to recreate the site, blurring the lines between fact and fiction. This evocative series seeks to popularize Bahraini folklore and the enduring legacy of Adhari. The photograph, (The Insatiable Desire to be) Submerged, reimagines Adhari Maiden’s transformation into an eternal spring after her encounter with a man in a palm tree grove, her tears symbolizing a horrifying encounter with sexual violence. The image’s melancholic tones mirror the somber narrative, while the figure’s fluid, anamorphic presence calls into question our connection to the land and the ideologies that shape it.
Alsaie’s work has been featured in exhibitions at Noor Riyadh (2023), KBHG Basel (2023), Warehouse421 (2021), Misk, Riyadh (2020), and PS122 New York (2019). She has been an Artist in Residence at Residency Unlimited in Brooklyn (2020), Salama Bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation (2021), and Samt Alternative Art School (2022).