While the oil industry has radically transformed the Gulf region over the past fifty years, the wealth it has generated has also meant that many simple forms of daily labor, including housework, are now performed by migrant workers. Yet this segment of the population, despite its size and significance, is rarely represented in the local mass media. In SOAP, Al
Qadiri edits figures of migrant workers into scenes in soap operas where only wealthy Arabs appear. The work exposes the hidden labor that maintains the glamorous lifestyles so often glamorized for entertainment. Initially striking a humorous note, the artist’s use of shoddy compositing techniques accentuates the plight of the migrant workers, who toil invisibly without any communication with their employers.
