Ayyam Gallery presents a solo exhibition by Iraqi photographer and conceptual artist Sama Alshaibi, featuring mixed-media collages and video works that reimagine Baghdad as a layered site of memory and possibility.
Between 2021 and 2023, Alshaibi returned to a city she had long known more through imagination than experience. Using LiDAR technology, she scanned its neighborhoods, landmarks, and marshland peripheries, capturing both physical structures and the ghostly silhouettes of people navigating daily life. These scans reveal a city shaped by post-war realities, where failing infrastructure mirrors the resilience of its inhabitants.
Through data mappings, photographs, and archival materials—including vernacular imagery and speculative renderings—Alshaibi assembles fragmented narratives. Her works layer time, technology, and memory, tracing Baghdad’s shifting form and the desires imposed upon it.