Yumna Al-Arashi

Yumna Al-Arashi (b. 1988) is a Yemeni Egyptian American photographer and filmmaker based in Zürich. Working primarily through self-portraiture, she investigates the body as a site of resistance, ritual and myth -using repetition, abstraction and elemental imagery to reclaim sovereignty over her own representation. Her practice is an act of reclamation for an Arab woman navigating society’s persistent desire to define, contain and consume women’s bodies, and the inherited histories they carry.

Her work spans photography, performance, sculpture and film. Notable bodies of work include Tears For The Future, Let Me In, rage, 13769 and Navel Gazing (Omphaloskepsis). Her award-winning monograph Aisha
(Edition Patrick Frey, 2022), an homage to her great-grandmother and the tattooed women of the MENA
region, is a landmark work in her practice.