Heba Y. Amin is participating in the 7th Ithra Art Prize Exhibition at the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra) in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Her work The Last Carrier: Iteration I (2026) was shortlisted for the prize and commissioned for the exhibition.
Drawing on her family history, Amin reflects on her great-grandfather, Muhammad Ahmad Elmahamly, one of the last leaders of the mahmal caravans that carried the sacred Kiswa cloth from Cairo to Mecca. Through the lens of archives, colonial representation, and visual memory, the artist examines how historical images are produced, circulated, and transformed into authoritative forms of knowledge. The work reinterprets an eighteenth-century engraving depicting the Egyptian mahmal procession, questioning the power dynamics embedded in historical representation and the colonial gaze.
Combining screen-printing and embroidery on cotton-linen textile, the work transforms the historical image into fragmented textile panels. Through this process, Amin repositions those once rendered as objects of colonial spectacle as subjects who look back, reclaiming agency through acts of re-vision. The work explores the meaning of inherited legacies and the ways in which historical narratives are constructed and transmitted across generations.
The 7th Ithra Art Prize Exhibition brings together diverse contemporary artistic practices, engaging with the cultural, historical, and social narratives shaping the region.
The exhibition is on view at Ithra Museum in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, between September 1 and December 31, 2026.
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