How often do you think about the textiles that are used in the outfits we wear everyday to cover our bodies?
Why exactly are we using these materials? Do we understand how they’re affecting our environment? Why are we relying on harmful fibres when textile technology is so advanced?
Alternatives exist, but there are manufacturers with too much control and too much money at stake. They don’t want to close their factories, so they keep doing what makes them money and in turn limit our choices. We are left to choose between what is affordable and what is good for the environment.
I am interested in the transformation of materials, and time. In the effect of our waste, especially our waste from fashion. In how we can rethink, reconsider and reuse what we have around us to create new ways of weaving…
Maha Alasaker is a visual artist based in Kuwait. She is a 2014 graduate from the International Center of Photography.
Through her artwork, Maha tries to gain a deeper understanding of herself while attempting to engage issues of culture and identity. Her curiosity centers around how a woman’s upbringing affects identity and self-worth.
Maha’s projects have been displayed in numerous exhibitions in New York City and London, as well as the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait. Magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, Marie Claire and Rolling Stone have featured her work.
In 2019, Maha published her first photo book, “Women of Kuwait”, which was then acquired by the Getty Research Institute and The Thomas J. Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.