Cathartic Fantasies (Revisions)

Cathartic Fantasies (Revisions)
Al Maria’s Cathartic Fantasies (Revisions) (2022) is an immersive installation featuring ‘paper-video’ collages that represent the passage of time in a rapidly-growing place. The collages incorporate scanned pages from Augusto Boal’s The Rainbow of Desire and acrylic drawings of people affected by development in Doha, Qatar. The drawings are traced from the street photography of Aparrna Jayakumar, who spent many years documenting the foreign residents of Doha. Cathartic Fantasies captures the complexities of identity in a rapidly changing environment.

Aural Futures
Alongside Cathartic Fantasies (Revisions), Al Maria presents Aural Futures (2022), a sound installation with four synchronized audio works. The installation fills the space with the hopes and dreams of four Qatar residents, expressed in a variety of languages spoken in Doha. The audio works were created through ‘daydream workshops,’ where participants wrote down their wishes for the future.