British Club Tattoos (2018—ongoing). Collected family photographs, archival imagery, personal essay, screenshots, diary entries, recreated painting, label facsimile, generated face-swaps, customs notice, recreated alchemical recipe, manufactured pearls, gemology journal entry, tattoo.
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Through an investigation into Bahraini pearls, a famous photograph, childhood memories at a British expat club, tattoos, alchemical recipes, and a Vermeer, this project attempts to understand why we (Bahrainis, and by extension the rest of the region) seek the validation and prestige of the West:
My great, great (great?) grandfather was a pearl merchant. That is what I’m told. There is an ongoing dispute that involves two families, a French jeweler, and a famous photograph. Taken in the early 20th century, it captures a moment when Jacques Cartier had traveled to Bahrain in search of the perfect pearl. The son of the founder and heir to THE Cartier empire was seated with a group of local merchants.
I’ve heard this story so many times, been shown this photograph with every retelling, that I’m not even sure if the man in question is to the right or left of Monsieur Cartier. One of these notable merchants is an Alzayani or a Mattar. The Alzayanis and the Mattars are related, and each family claims this man as their ancestor: the man who introduced Jacques to the perfect pearl. The man who, allegedly, rejected the idea of the Frenchman courting his sister, or daughter, or neice, or whoever. My aunts would say, when retelling this story, that we could have owned a palace in Paris! Sorry, I meant to say a ‘palais’.
Read more from British Club Tattoos here.
As installed in Portrait of a Nation II, ADMAF (2022), and The Youth Takeover, Jameel Art Centre (2020). Image credits: Daniella Baptista