Soraya, the foreign Princess (The Princess and her Lover) part of the 29 Palms, CA project - Limited Edition of 10 Photograph

Soraya, the foreign Princess (The Princess and her Lover) part of the 29 Palms, CA project - 2007 20x24cm, Edition of 10. Digital C-Print based on a Polaroid, Signature label and Certificate, artist Inventory # 7009. Not mounted. The Princess: 33 stones, there used to be 34. They told me the value would have been higher if the crown was still intact. I told them it was one of the smaller stones, the one that was missing was the side emerald. It didn’t matter, it was damaged. People are buying something else, this isn’t going to be melted down and sold for parts. This is a piece of history and it is less than perfect. That is what the surveyor had told me. In fact, he didn’t even believe it was real. I had to wait a humiliating 5 hours in a cold foyer in downtown Manhattan before they came out and told me what I had already known – that this was authentic but flawed. The value was way less than I expected, only 100k. I think Jennifer Lopez’ engagement ring was far more expensive than this, my mother’s crown. At any rate, as I said before, this had lost it’s value as it was no longer as it was intended to be. Apart from the missing emerald it was also bent and damaged in places. Most likely this damage occurred since this magically tragic piece came into my possession. I remember the desperate moment that my mother ran into my room late that night, it was a night very similar to tonight, really it was, it was warm, so warm and dry I had kept the windows of my bedroom open so that I could sleep to the smell of the night blooming jasmine. I never fell asleep that night, instead I laid perfectly still, and perfectly terrified, as I sniffed the jasmine to the sounds of approaching gunfire and bombs. I didn’t want to move a muscle. I was four years old and I believed if I could ‘sit still’ as my grandmother had ceaselessly told me, I would be rewarded. I laid very still, this my only option as the rebel forces approached our palace. I had been listening to the arguments for weeks before this moment, between my older brother and my father. My brother said something had to be done. But my father was stubborn, he would not negotiate the demands of these rebels, he didn’t believe they had any real power. He would die thinking that. In many ways he was quite lucky, He died only 10 days ago, in his sleep, peacefully, unexpectedly. He had no idea this threat would become so real only days later. I suppose it all makes sense now, that the insurgents would seize this opportunity of a suddenly dead king and the rise of his young and weak son, to take over. So my mother’s crown gets stuffed into a toy elephant together with some photos. Her brother is overthrown, her mother killed and she is smuggled out with an Aunt. She grows up in America and lives like and average American girl. Her brother takes the thrown again but he never sends for her. After he looses the Thrown and goes into exile. He fights his way back as some lowly colonel. He finds himself living in an apartment – a room from one of our families palaces, now government buildings - he came to America when I was 18 and tried to marry me off to the son of the minister of agriculture (in a desert country with very little agriculture this is not an important decision but that is besides the point) My aunt tore into him in a way that I had never seen. She was furious...I would only understand now that this time he came and the last time were not out of love or concern for me but using me as some kind of political pawn to get himself back into favor. I was, in the end, a princess, a concept that is both completely alien yet totally familiar to me.

Photography:Color on Other

Artist Produced Limited Edition of:10

Size:9.4 W x 7.9 H x 0.1 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.