Emirati photographer and musician Farah Al Qasimi presents her solo exhibition "Psychic Repair" at the SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah, Georgia, running from January to June 7, 2026. Curated by SCAD Museum Associate Curator Brittany Richmond, the show explores self-presentation and consumerism through staged domestic interiors, vinyl works, framed photographs, and music videos. Key pieces include "Beauty Salon" (2024), "Aquarium" (2024), "Clothing Store" (2023), and "Painting and Astroturf" (2023), which appropriate signifiers of the attention economy. The exhibition is strategically positioned to respond to Savannah's history as a port city built on trade in cotton, indigo, rice, and enslaved people, with the museum itself occupying a former railway depot made of Savannah Gray brick produced by enslaved laborers.
This exhibition matters because it uses Al Qasimi's perspective as a Muslim millennial from the UAE to critique consumerism and the afterlife of images, while directly engaging with the site-specific history of Savannah. By layering contemporary digital aesthetics—vinyl installations, screenshots from online shopping, and music videos—onto a building with a painful past tied to slavery and the cotton trade, Al Qasimi creates what the article calls a "digital, gothic futurism" that forces viewers to confront how commercialism and historical trauma intersect. The show also highlights SCAD's role in bringing international contemporary artists to the American South and fostering dialogues about place, memory, and representation.