"The truth, always the truth--at all costs"
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| 379 02/28/2003 Art By 9 Muslim Women Mary Abbe |
| In the United States since the Sept. 11 tragedy, images of Muslim women have largely been shaped by news stories by or about outsiders -- photographers, journalists, politicians, aid workers. Their accounts of girls banned from schools and women beaten for not wearing veils have validity, but they pale before the extraordinarily complex stories that Muslim women tell. "Sheherazade: Risking the Passage" is a remarkable show in which nine contemporary Muslim women reflect on their personal experiences, culture, religion and current events. Their paintings, photos, installations and sculpture offer a deftly nuanced portrait of lives infused with contemporary aspirations but profoundly circumscribed by faith and tradition. All of the women now live in the United States but were born and raised -- or lived for extended periods -- in Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Kenya or Lebanon. Islam manifests itself differently in each of these countries, variations that have imprinted the women and their art. Without being confessional or intrusively intimate, the art in "Sheherazade" exudes an intense, personal vulnerability. These are obviously thoughtful, accomplished women whose feminist longings are universal. The subtle beauty of their art, and their skillful blending of tradition and modernity, reinforce the sincerity of their questioning. Life as doctor, then artist The show was organized by Hend Al-Mansour, a St. Paul artist whose life reflects the cultural contradictions many Muslim women face. Born and raised in Saudi Arabia, she was trained as a doctor in Egypt and returned home to practice medicine, one of the few professions open to Saudi women. Even as a doctor, Al-Mansour said, she had to be veiled in public and needed permission from a male guardian -- father, brother, husband, the town mayor or a judge -- to travel anywhere, even within her homeland. Saudi men and women live entirely separate lives after age 12, when girls must begin wearing the veil, she said. Families rarely gather because women must be veiled in the presence of even their brothers-in-law, "and that is uncomfortable," she said. Although she practiced medicine for many years, Al-Mansour, 46, chafed under such restrictions. In 1997, she won a scholarship to do research in cardiology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. She eventually stopped practicing medicine and last year completed a master's degree in fine arts at Minneapolis College of Art and Design. The Women's Institute at MCAD cosponsored this show with the Women's Art Registry of Minnesota. "Saudi women really are invisible," Al-Mansour said. "I'm trying to give them voices, make them visible and let people know about the social practices that are horrible." A tent called 'Autobiography' Although Al-Mansour lived in modern buildings in Saudi Arabia, she created a traditional tent-like space for an installation called "Autobiography." Visitors are instructed to remove their shoes and don one of the black robes provided. Inside, a babble of taped women's voices, warm incense-laden air, sand floors, prayer rugs printed with verses from the Qur'an and other emblems of traditional life suggest the close embrace of religion. A pile of rocks papered with instructions from the Qur'an to beat disobedient women reinforces female subservience in male-dominated Islamic countries. "My piece is about Islam, the Qur'an and women," Al-Mansour said. "Whenever I read the Qur'an, I find verses that make me feel inferior and not a full human being. My art is about the conflict between that and wanting to belong to the culture, to be spiritual and to be a good Muslim." The tensions that Islamic women struggle with are apparent everywhere in "Sheherazade." In quasi-documentary images, Twin Cities photographer Kitty Aal records six Arab-American women in Western dress on an outing in a Minneapolis park. To most Americans, their blue jeans and bare arms would be utterly unremarkable, but they could be arrested for such a display in many Islamic countries. Doris Bittar, who was born in Iraq and grew up outside Beirut, Lebanon, and now teaches at the University of California in San Diego, makes a similar point in two paintings displayed behind gauze curtains. One depicts a girl in running shorts; the other shows an older woman, also unveiled. Short stories printed on the curtains dramatically illustrate how clothing can become a flash point for generational conflict. Other works range from Sylvat Aziz's huge paintings of veiled women in the saturated colors of Matisse to dreamlike autobiographical images in the style of Persian miniatures by Sehr Jalal, a Pakistani artist. Heba Mohammad, a second-generation Iraqi who was born in Mississippi and is now an art student in New Mexico, offers a disarmingly simple but effective sculpture: a tray of human hearts made of plaster and bearing religious, geographic and ethnic tags: "I am Asian." "I am Christian." "I am Latino." The most mesmerizing works are color photos of Moroccan women by Lalla Essaydi and a room-like installation of translucent banners on which Sherazad Jamal wrote insightful reflections on the loss of civil liberties and human dignity following Sept. 11. There is also a brief film by Michelle Mehri Mousavi installed in an alcove near Al-Mansour's installation. With their exotic beauty and startling subtext, Essaydi's photos exemplify the contradictions in Muslim women's lives. The photos were taken in a "House of Obedience" belonging to Essaydi's family in Morocco. Women are confined there for extended periods, apparently to compel repentance after they've broken an Islamic custom. Essaydi, who studied in Paris and now lives in Boston, persuaded Moroccan women friends to pose for her in that beautiful prison. Naked, their bodies are painted with floral patterns and lines of lacelike calligraphy quoting from the Qur'an. In the show's excellent catalog, Deepali Dewan, an associate curator at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, explains that calligraphy is a sacred Islamic art forbidden to women. By literally robing themselves in the words of the Qur'an, the women are both submitting to and violating Muslim strictures. It's mysterious, poignant and powerful. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sheherazade: Risking the Passage What: A powerful, beautifully in stalled and eloquent show of paintings, photos, sculpture and installations reflecting the tension between tradition and modernity in the lives of nine contemporary Muslim women who were born in Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Kenya and Lebanon but now live in the United States. When: Thru March 15. noon-5 p.m. Mon.-Thu.; 5-10 p.m. Fri.-Sat.; 2-8 p.m. Sun. Where: El Colegio Gallery, 4137 Bloomington Av. S., Mpls. Reception: 6-10 p.m. March 8, free. Tickets: Free. -- Visit Doris Bittar's Web Site: http://visarts.ucsd.edu/~dbittar |
