Rasha Kahil: Capturing the Tension Between Defiance and Vulnerability
A Life Between Beirut and London
Born in Beirut in 1980, Rasha Kahil is a visual artist whose work—spanning photography, text, video, and installation—explores the intimate and the provocative. With an MA from London’s Royal College of Art, she has exhibited internationally, from Istanbul to Paris, while navigating the complexities of her dual identity: "Half Middle Eastern, half European in spirit."
Her practice interrogates the body, confession, and the blur between private and public—often through the female form, which she frames as both a blank canvas and a contested site of meaning.
Becoming an Artist: An Unplanned Journey
Q: When did you realize you were an artist?
"I never decided to become one—I even hesitate to call myself ‘artist.’ Since my BA in 1998, I’ve been obsessed with themes of the body, intimacy, and exposure. At the RCA (2007–09), I stopped treating these as side projects and committed to them fully. It was less about choosing art and more about surrendering to what haunted me."
Inspirations: Love, Loss, and the Visceral
Themes: "Sex, death, vulnerability—the raw edges of human experience."
Mediums: Photography as "a way to freeze and dissect emotion."
Artistic Heroes: Marina Abramović (performance), Louise Bourgeois (psychoanalytic textiles), Roger Ballen (uncanny portraiture), and George Bataille (transgressive literature).
On the Female Body:
"It’s a loaded symbol. I use it to project my own narratives while subverting its commodified history. My work isn’t about shock—it’s about peeling back layers to reveal something primal."
Breaking Taboos: "In Your Home" and Beyond
Her critically acclaimed series In Your Home—self-portraits in strangers’ domestic spaces—began as an experiment in 2008 and has since toured Beirut, Istanbul, London, and Paris.
Beirut’s Response: "People called it ‘taboo,’ but they looked past the nudity to the vulnerability beneath. Even my mother loved it!"
ArtForum’s Praise: Listed as a "Critic’s Pick" during its Beirut showcase.
Upcoming Experiments:
Male Portraiture: "The dynamic shifts—suddenly, the female gaze introduces tension, power, sensuality."
Photography + Audio: New layers of narrative immersion.
Beirut’s Influence: Freedom Within Constraints
Q: How does your Lebanese heritage shape your work?
"I won’t make work just to provoke. In Beirut, I’ve learned to balance defiance with depth. My exhibitions there prove that ‘controversial’ themes—when rooted in honesty—can spark universal conversations."
Self-Censorship?
"Not to dilute, but to distill. The Middle East taught me that true audacity lies in substance, not spectacle."
Rasha’s World: From Blogs to Galleries
Online Rabbit Holes: "I get lost clicking from Nowness to I Love Hotdogs—it’s chaos!"
Must-Reads: Purple, 032c, Sang Bleu, and Vogue ("for the fantasy").
Favorite Galleries:
CO Berlin (photography’s cutting edge).
Victoria Miro, London (contemporary intimacy).
The Running Horse, Beirut (her Middle Eastern anchor).
The Core of Her Practice
"I’m drawn to the clash of defiance and vulnerability—that moment when a person’s armor cracks. It’s human, messy, beautiful. If my work makes others feel seen, I’ve succeeded."
Discover Her Work: www.rashakahil.com | Book: In Your Home (limited edition of 150).
"Art isn’t about answers—it’s about asking better questions."
(P.S. Ask her about the time she shot a self-portrait in a stranger’s bathtub.)
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