Artwork Page for Harem #14

Details / Information for Harem #14

Harem #14

2009

Lalla Essaydi

(Moroccan, b. 1956)
Culture
Morocco
Medium
Chromogenic print mounted to aluminum with a UV protective laminate
Measurements
Overall: 101.6 x 76.2 cm (40 x 30 in.)
Credit Line
The Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2012.14
Copyright
© Lalla Essaydi
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
Not on view
Print
?

Did You Know?

The photographer says, "In my art, I wish to present myself through multiple lenses—as artist, as Moroccan, as traditionalist, as liberal, as Muslim. In short, I invite viewers to resist stereotypes."

Description

Lalla Essaydi examines the role of Muslim women by applying layers of Arabic calligraphy by hand with henna on the faces and feet of the two young women whose camouflaged dress mimics the colorful wall tiles in an elaborate Moroccan house belonging to her family. Rather than representing the harem as the euphoric anxiety-free place of the Western imagination, Essaydi is portraying its historical reality as, she says, "a dangerous frontier where sacred law and pleasure collide." Young women who disobeyed were confined in this beautiful house—accompanied only by servants—for a month in silence.
A vertically oriented color photograph with a black film border depicts a woman with medium-light skin tone sitting on a ledge, her body facing our right while looking at us. Her patterned clothing blends into the dense blue, green, and tan geometric tiles covering the walls. Through a central ornate archway, a second figure sits in a distant window alcove above a checkered floor. Intricate mosaics create a camouflaging effect throughout.

Harem #14

2009

Lalla Essaydi

(Moroccan, b. 1956)
Morocco

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