FREE THE WORK
Photograph by Nasrah Omar
Nasrah Omar is one of 20 Fellows who were awarded the inaugural Image Equity Fellowship. Learn more here.
Proteus Effect XXVIII (2023) by Nasrah OmarFREE THE WORK
A close up portrait of Nova’s face in the style of sea-punk, with a subdued labyrinth structure embedded onto the skin in aquatic turquoise and aquamarine hues. Bubbles, disintegrating coral-esque shapes and glistening lights are interspersed throughout.
Nasrah Omar is drawn to the limits and possibilities of world-building, both online and in real life. In her series Proteus Effect (2021–ongoing), iridescent slime oozes in from a French window, amethyst runic stones scatter over a game board, a head appears just above the surface of a bioluminescent body of water.
Proteus Effect XXXI (2023) by Nasrah OmarFREE THE WORK
Mice of varying sizes (small, medium, large) and colors (gray, black, white) form a circle as they cluster around a single black hole in the nucleus. They are awash in vivid fuchsia and green lights concentrated along the edges of the frame.]
“I’ve always thought of photography as an apparatus to manipulate reality,” says Omar, who was born in India, graduated from the School of Visual Arts in 2012, and now lives in Queens. “The imagery explores how virtual spaces become deeply affective and integral to the composition of layered identities, agendas, and ideologies.”
Proteus Effect XXV (2023) by Nasrah OmarFREE THE WORK
Pink hued composition with computer motherboard in the foreground with Nova’s portrait and reflection of hand in a reflective surface integrated into it. A miniature ladder in the center of the frame is underneath a suspended graphic of a CPU with parts resembling facial markers
Through photographic tableaus, references ranging from spiritualism to Tumblr, and collaborative portraits with queer Muslim Bangladeshi activist and model Nova A, Omar explores how constructed ecosystems are able to challenge power structures encoded within technologies, often expressed through surveillance systems, algorithmic biases, and censorship.
Proteus Effect XXVI (2023) by Nasrah OmarFREE THE WORK
Nova’s face is visible just above water level in an enclosed body of water with bioluminescence. Behind them is a wall with black floating particles and a black rectangular screen with the faint traces of a body visible.
Among her influences are thinkers who’ve drawn potent links between digital systems and real-world imbalances, including Legacy Russell, James Bridle, and Zainab Aliyu, who co-taught a class Omar took at the School for Poetic Computation in New York. At its heart, the world built by the series is an experiment in imagining—as Omar says—“how the digital world can be an avenue to create agency for marginalized persons.”
Editorial statement by Aperture.
Proteus Effect XXII (2023) by Nasrah OmarFREE THE WORK
Red and black connector cables form a uterine shape in a cluster, positioned against a corner of three brightly colored (teal, fuchsia and lavender) walls.
Proteus Effect XXI (2023) by Nasrah OmarFREE THE WORK
Pink room with an orange parquet floor and french window. There's an iridescent slime mold covering the surface of the lurid window, oozing inside the room and spreading onto the floor underneath. Behind the slime is a small cloud of green mold with a computational binary code.
Proteus Effect XXIX (2023) by Nasrah OmarFREE THE WORK
A black screen with a crack that reveals Nova in motion, in a mythological Zephyr-like embodiment wearing a green wig, submerged in aquamarine hues.
Proteus Effect XXX (2023) by Nasrah OmarFREE THE WORK
A flat cgi avatar rendering of Nova’s torso is visible on the lower half of the composition, atop their face is absent and replaced with an explosion of green bubbles. Positioned on top are keyboard keys with scattered letters spelling “technomancy".
Proteus Effect XXVII (2023) by Nasrah OmarFREE THE WORK
A wooden maze is placed on top of a reflective blue floor, just beyond it two walled corners intersect. They display a projection of Bodhisattvas in multiples, luminous and fading into greenish rust hues.
Proteus Effect XXIII (2023) by Nasrah OmarFREE THE WORK
A flat square shaped game board positioned diagonally in the middle of the composition. On top are amethyst runic stones scattered around with a cluster in the middle. On each side are spectral images of the deities Mohini, Durga, Laxmi and Parvati emerging from grid meshes.
Nasrah Omar
Click below to see more work from this New York-based image maker:
Web: nasrahomar.com
IG: @nasrahomarphoto
Explore the other 2022 Image Equity Fellows’ final projects and learn more about the Fellowship here.
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