Bodies in Places

Translated from the original text in Arabic by Katharine Halls.

As I pasted these bodies on the photos of the walls of buildings across Jordan, I was inviting those who saw them to accept the body at its purest and most noble rather than only seeing it through the lens of nudity versus modesty.

I hope our eyes and minds can be made to see our bodies and sexualities as beautiful things, even though they’re usually repressed and rejected in our region. The project throws light on this vital but hidden part of our lives. As the Saudi artist Hend Al-Mansour puts it: “Sexuality might be hidden, but it never disappears.”

These photos were taken in downtown Amman, Jordan, in April 2020, when shops and public facilities were closed due to the Covid-19 lockdown.