Saara Mahbouba

Performing The Self

Abstract

Performing identity is a newly legitimized form of work. It is now easier than ever to brand and sell the self as a product. Identity has become commodity.

Yet, performing identity is also a long standing form of unremunerated, unavoidable, and unrecognized labour that we are forced to perform in most aspects of our lives. How can reality television, as an extreme example of performing the self, help us better understand the contemporary relationship between the self and work?

Bio

Saara Mahbouba is a visual artist whose work centres around the intersection of identity formation, theory, and visual culture, both on an individual and a communal level.  She is interested in the ‘in betweeness’ of her own lived experience and her artistic practice hovers around notions of displacement, alienation, and reconnection. Her use of mediums ranges from text and theory based work, to visual art (painting, drawing, installation, and experimental materials), and performative actions both within and outside of artistic settings.

She received her B.A. from New York University and is working on her M.A. at Aalto University. She is currently based in Helsinki.