The various myths told about the Laughing Snake depict a monstrous figure (some believe an al-jinn) who has taken over a city and its lands, murdering its people and animals. Over the years there were many attempts at destroying this jinn, but none were successful.

One day, an old man living in a cave comes forth to reignite hope with a revelation: the only way to kill the snake is to hold a mirror in front of her. When people do so, and the snake sees her own image in the mirror, she starts laughing. She laughs for days and nights until she self-destructs and dies.

In my re-telling of this story, I use the concepts of The Laughing Snake and the mirror to reflect on a series of personal and imagined stories in relationship to hysteria, delirium, sexual abuse, impositions of morality, and the experience of living in a female body in the Middle East. I want to reconsider the snake’s laughter as a position of power; with her self-destruction as an act of ultimate agency over her own body and image.

This project is co-commissioned by Liverpool Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art and FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) for Liverpool Biennial 2018.