'The King's Chamber' is another of Al-Ani's works which addresses the disruption in the voyeuristic relationship between the viewer and subject.
The piece hints at the related tropes in Western painting of the bathing woman and the Orientalist cliché of the odalisque or harem member. We watch, unseen, as a woman relaxes while she bathes. Despite exciting the possibility of pleasure, very little happens. She reads a magazine, sips wine and stares blankly into space.
From http://www.identinet.net/html/jananne.html
Commissioned by Simon Moretti
The Kings Chamber (excerpt)
Stills from The Kings Chamber
