Through her artistic practice, Zineb Sedira deals with varied themes such as the portrait, representation and also notions of identity and memory. She was born in France to Algerian immigrant parents and questions and reinterprets the two cultures, confronting habitual Western images and Arab rituals. The artist also denounces the use and growing dehumanisation of the image of women in advertising and the media. In Autobiographical Patterns, the artist does not show her face, as the title may lead us to believe; she chooses to fragment her body, by only showing her hand placed against a white background. Lying on her back, in silence, she writes her autobiography in French, Arabic and English quickly and obsessively, on the palm of her hand. She tells her story, of her birth in France through to her move to London. The words “I was born...”, “French nationality” come across more legibly, but gradually fade as the words completely cover the hand, blackening the artist's skin and allowing a calligraphy to appear that recalls that of henna tattoos: a very popular practice in Oriental culture. This superposition of different tests becomes the symbol of her multiple identities and cultural plurality – the writing process gives the artist the chance to write her own fiction based on her identity. However, the confusion caused by these multiple calligraphies may also express the artist's confusion at being torn between three cultures. It is as though her identity is so far undefined, as though another part of her story still remains to be written.

Priscilia Marques