Anisa Ashkar

Color photograpg, 100x100 cm., 2004

The artist Anisa Ashkar photographed herself like portraits of Roman Caesar and other leaders: the head crowned with curls, the chin is directed forward, the mouth is closed and the face has no expression. While men portraits commemorate the heroes, the women portraits were used as decorations. Here the artist merges them: she is both the hero and the beauty.

My face is my canvas, she says. Every morning in the last fourteen years, she writes on her face a word or a motto like the one here: We Shall Meet on One of the Days With the Long Shadow. The skill of calligraphy became face makeup. Anisa Ashkar uses her body as a platform for art, a wandering performance. She is both the artist and the art work.