Self Portraits with Foreign Fruits And Vegetables

2009-2011 | Photographic series | 52 x 70 cm each

Self Portraits with Foreign Fruits And Vegetables, Archival inkjet print on fine art paper, 52 x 70 cm

Self Portraits with Foreign Fruits And Vegetables, Archival inkjet on archival fine art paper, 52 x 70 cm

Self Portraits with Foreign Fruits And Vegetables, Archival inkjet print on fine art paper, 52 x 70 cm

In this photographic series, Yassin attempts to depict the melancholia and absurdity often associated with forcefully integrating oneself into a foreign culture or geography. In an array of varying postures and positions, the artist poses himself naked in front of the camera, each time with a different fruit or vegetable. These foods are in his eyes the success story of his dilemma. For despite their foreign origins, they have managed to fit themselves into the Western diet and go unnoticed at the dinner table. They are the successfully naturalised foreigner, the role model that the artist seeks to imitate. However, these actions become absurd when the subject is not a food but a human being. Nevertheless, the artist repeatedly twists and turns his body to compliment the shape and color of the capable vegetables. In essence, the works reflect the impossibility of erasing one’s body and form in an attempt to become simply mundane in the eye of the other.

Exhibition views - Billboard, Minneapolis, St. Paul - photos by Amanda Hankerson
Exhibition views - Minnesota Museum Of American Art - photos by Amanda Hankerson

Exhibition view, Minnesota Museum Of American Art, 2019

Billboard, Minneapolis, St. Paul, 2019