Presently
showing at the National Museum of African Art, one of the many free Smithsonian
museums in Washington, D.C., is a thought-provoking collection of 30 works
entitled 
"Revisions" by award-winning Moroccan painter and
photographer, Lalla Essaydi. Born in
Marrakech in 1958, Essaydi grew up in a harem atmosphere, she says, living between
Morocco and Saudi Arabia. Her father was
an accomplished artist who expected young Lalla to behave in a manner consistent
with strict Islamic values. Whenever she
did not, she was relegated to the harem, to isolation in that zone of the home
intended for women only. Lalla Essaydi
herself defines the Arabic word harem
as "sin" although it can also be defined as "something prohibited"
and "sanctuary, women." Essaydi's
straightforward, high-impact, over-sized photographs contain female subjects
only, including family members as well as herself, posing together or else
alone inside the ornately tiled spaces of her own family's harem in Morocco. Far from being stereotypical, Essaydi's
figures are abundantly swathed in cloth which has been painstakingly covered in
Arabic calligraphy with the use of natural dye henna applied by the artist
herself. In accordance with tradition,
her subjects' hands and feet are also covered with henna, the Moroccan women's
decorative art used to mark rites of passage such as puberty, marriage and motherhood. However, faces and even veils in the artist's
chromogenic prints are also covered with script done in henna. Arabic calligraphy is meant to be a man's art,
reserved for poetry and religious writing, but Lalla Essaydi employs it
liberally. She says, "Writing is an
act of rebellion because calligraphy writing was historically inaccessible to women." Describing her work, she says, "It's
about past colonialism and independence.
It is about women, by a woman and towards women. It is about freedom, constrained and
controlled. . . It is about space within, between, about. . . It is more than
art to me. It is my
testimony." Her declared mission is
to portray Muslim women as human beings, as strong individuals with minds and lives
of their own, very different from the female subjects of Orientalism. Essaydi strives to dash the illusion conveyed
in such works as Delacroix's "Femmes d'Alger" and Ingres' "La Grand
Odalisque." She further explains,
"In my art, I wish to present myself through multiple lenses--as artist,
as Moroccan, as
Saudi, as traditionalist, as Liberal, as Muslim." In reference to her writing, she says,
"A dialogue between reality and dreams, arguing, fighting, hope comes
creeping in silence, but forceful." Despite her Western education (L'Ecole Des
Beaux Arts in Paris; Tufts University; School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston)
and the fact that she currently commutes between New York and Morocco, we cannot
say that we know who Essaydi and her subjects are, or even guess who and what they
would like to be. Her subjects in their silent
interiors, facing each other or lounging alone, or else standing up straight
before us and peering hard into the artist's lens without pretense, covered head
to toe with script, have given birth to a new kind of Oriental mystery. "Revisions" will remain open to the
public through Feb. 24, 2013. UN’AMERICANA A VENEZIA
"Revisions" by award-winning Moroccan painter and
photographer, Lalla Essaydi. Born in
Marrakech in 1958, Essaydi grew up in a harem atmosphere, she says, living between
Morocco and Saudi Arabia. Her father was
an accomplished artist who expected young Lalla to behave in a manner consistent
with strict Islamic values. Whenever she
did not, she was relegated to the harem, to isolation in that zone of the home
intended for women only. Lalla Essaydi
herself defines the Arabic word harem
as "sin" although it can also be defined as "something prohibited"
and "sanctuary, women." Essaydi's
straightforward, high-impact, over-sized photographs contain female subjects
only, including family members as well as herself, posing together or else
alone inside the ornately tiled spaces of her own family's harem in Morocco. Far from being stereotypical, Essaydi's
figures are abundantly swathed in cloth which has been painstakingly covered in
Arabic calligraphy with the use of natural dye henna applied by the artist
herself. In accordance with tradition,
her subjects' hands and feet are also covered with henna, the Moroccan women's
decorative art used to mark rites of passage such as puberty, marriage and motherhood. However, faces and even veils in the artist's
chromogenic prints are also covered with script done in henna. Arabic calligraphy is meant to be a man's art,
reserved for poetry and religious writing, but Lalla Essaydi employs it
liberally. She says, "Writing is an
act of rebellion because calligraphy writing was historically inaccessible to women." Describing her work, she says, "It's
about past colonialism and independence.
It is about women, by a woman and towards women. It is about freedom, constrained and
controlled. . . It is about space within, between, about. . . It is more than
art to me. It is my
testimony." Her declared mission is
to portray Muslim women as human beings, as strong individuals with minds and lives
of their own, very different from the female subjects of Orientalism. Essaydi strives to dash the illusion conveyed
in such works as Delacroix's "Femmes d'Alger" and Ingres' "La Grand
Odalisque." She further explains,
"In my art, I wish to present myself through multiple lenses--as artist,
as Moroccan, as
Saudi, as traditionalist, as Liberal, as Muslim." In reference to her writing, she says,
"A dialogue between reality and dreams, arguing, fighting, hope comes
creeping in silence, but forceful." Despite her Western education (L'Ecole Des
Beaux Arts in Paris; Tufts University; School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston)
and the fact that she currently commutes between New York and Morocco, we cannot
say that we know who Essaydi and her subjects are, or even guess who and what they
would like to be. Her subjects in their silent
interiors, facing each other or lounging alone, or else standing up straight
before us and peering hard into the artist's lens without pretense, covered head
to toe with script, have given birth to a new kind of Oriental mystery. "Revisions" will remain open to the
public through Feb. 24, 2013. UN’AMERICANA A VENEZIA
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