Nasser Al Salem's latest body of work, Language is Stronger than Light, certainly turns the old adage on its head whereby a single word can certainly speak a thousand images. In this series, Al Salem pushes the boundaries of expression and representation by portraying forms of photographic imagery to linguistic signs. Al Salem plays on his audience's sense of memory and imagination, by carefully selecting words that draw on one's personal notions of belonging and identity.

The development of this body of work, which bridges the conceptual with the traditional, pays a marking tribute to the significance and power of the written word. His use of language draws on the malleability of the mind in projecting one's memory of self, drawing from the past, into the present and possibilities of the future. The selection of words are carefully considered to represent the everyday and familiar experiences that anyone can relate to, painting such imagery quite literally into words. Such a process democratises this form of language, giving back the power of personal interpretation and visualisation into his viewer's eyes and mind.


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