Amsterdam, 2018.
“Not her lush curls nor her lingerie attracts the attention, but the discrepancy between the power that her body radiates and the hesitation, the uncertainty that is within her glance, captured by Mubarak precisely as well as subtly.” Mischa Andriessen, poet, writer and reviewer on the exhibition opening of 'Laila Mubarak – For Who She Is', 26 October 2018 at Lauwer.
My Life
Amsterdam 2015
© Laila Mubarak
Work in progress.
This project is a study on the portrait and self-portrait.
With seven girls I explore the different questions; Who are you? Who do you want to be? How do you want to be seen?
Student
Riga, 2014
© Laila Mubarak
Lionel
Amsterdam 2015
© Laila Mubarak
Belle
Den Haag 2016
© Laila Mubarak
Like me, Love me, See me, she studies the portrait as a reaction on the changing visual culture. Especially among the young generation she sees a particular standard of making portraits. There seems to be a format. Adolescents are in a phase of developing identity. On one hand they tend to comply with their peers and the other hand they are trying to find their authentic self’s. Their self-portrait looks like a conformation with the prevailing visual culture. Like me, Love me, See me explores the endless possibilities of the portrait in search of the authentic self.
Chapter 1
Amsterdam 2014
© Laila Mubarak
Individual
Amsterdam 2016
© Laila Mubarak
Untitled
Amsterdam, 2017
© Laila Mubarak
Irreversible love.
My uncle has been living in a psychiatric clinic since his adolescence, the family says he is sick. But can not tell me more about his condition. They decided to take him in a clinic, out of an act of care. For more then 40 years the clinic is his world. He visited his mother 3 times in al these years. I can not understand this from my perspective. I grew up in the Netherlands, my mothers country. Where self-determination is a norm.
At the same time I feel the complexity from the roots of my father, the Indonesian culture, that is rooted deep inside me. The culture that is silent, peace has to be taken with decisions of the elderly.
Questions bother me; does he miss the life he has known? has he been able to experience happiness? which disease has determined his fate?
I went to visit him.
Noice
Amsterdam 2014
© Laila Mubarak
