Apolis is a visual autobiography of Arash Fayez’s life in limbo between 2014 and 2018. The 312 pages comprise the artist’s complete US immigration dossier, from his arrest by law enforcement authorities to his voluntary departure from the country. Apolis presents official documents overlaid with smartphone photos of everyday life captured during the same period. Photographs are “collaged” over sections of the immigration dossier, concealing personal and sensitive information. This juxtaposition creates a multilayered narrative, revealing contrasting perspectives—of those in power and of someone without any. The project stemmed from a conversation between the artist and his immigration lawyer, whose succinct explanation of his legal status encapsulated the situation’s complexity: “You’re not illegal, but you’re not legal either.”

Arash Fayez is an artist working with different forms of image-making, exploring notions of in-betweenness. He was born in Tehran, studied fine arts at California College of the Arts in San Francisco, and currently lives in Barcelona.