Lalla Essaydi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lalla A. Essaydi
Born1956 (age 64–65)
Marrakesh, Morocco
NationalityMoroccan
EducationÉcole nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris; Tufts University, Boston; School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Known forPhotographer
Notable work
Les Femmes du Maroc: Grande Odalisque 2
MovementHurufiyya movement
Websitehttp://lallaessaydi.com/

Lalla A. Essaydi (Arabic: للا السيدي‎; born 1956) is a Moroccan photographer known for her staged photographs of Arab women in contemporary art. She currently works in Boston, Massachusetts, and Morocco. Her current residence is in New York.

Early life and education[]

Essaydi was born in Marrakesh, Morocco in 1956. She left to attend high school in Paris at 16. She married after returning to Morocco and moved to Saudi Arabia where she had two children and divorced. Essaydi returned to Paris in the early 1990s to attend the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts.[1] She moved to Boston in 1996 and earned her BFA from Tufts University in 1999 and her MFA in painting and photography from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in 2003.[2]

Work[]

Influenced by her experiences growing up in Morocco and Saudi Arabia, Essaydi explores the ways that gender and power are inscribed on Muslim women's bodies and the spaces they inhabit. She has stated that her work is autobiographical[3] and that she was inspired by the differences she perceived in women's lives in the United States versus in Morocco, in terms of freedom and identity.[4] She explores a wide range of perspectives, including issues of diaspora, identity, and expected location through her studio practice in Boston.[5] The inspiration for many of her works came from her childhood, in the physical space where she, as a young woman, was sent when she disobeyed. She stepped outside the permissible behavioral space, as defined by Moroccan culture.[6] Essaydi said her works will become haunted by spaces she inhabited as a child.[7]

Several pieces of her work (including Converging Territories) combine henna, which is traditionally used to decorate the hands and feet of brides, with Arabic calligraphy, a predominantly male practice.[8] While she uses henna to apply calligraphy to her female subjects' bodies, the words are indecipherable in an attempt to question authority and meaning.[8]

The women depicted in her exhibition of photographs, Les Femmes du Maroc, are represented as decorative and confined by the art of henna.[9] Essaydi thus poses her subjects in a way that exemplifies society's views of women as primarily destined for mere beauty. Henna, however, is extremely symbolic, especially to Moroccan women. It is an association with familial celebrations of a young girl reaching puberty and transitioning into a mature woman. The use of henna in her work creates a silent atmosphere of the women "speaking" to each other through a quality of femininity. It is predominantly a painting process where women who are discouraged to work outside the home find a profitable work in applying a tattoo-like material.[9] Beyond creating powerful pieces revolving around the art of henna, Essaydi includes interpretations of traditional Moroccan elements, including draped folds of cloths adorning women's bodies, mosaic, tiles, and Islamic architecture.[10]

Career and Awards[]

Her work has been exhibited at the National Museum of African Art.[11] In 2015, the San Diego Museum of Art mounted the exhibition, Lalla Essaydi: Photographs.[12]

Her work is represented in a number of collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago;[citation needed] the Museum Fünf Kontinente Munich/ Germany;[citation needed] the San Diego Museum of Art;[citation needed] the Cornell Fine Arts Museum,[13] Winter Park, Florida; the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and the Williams College Museum of Art in Williamstown, Massachusetts.[14] She was named as #18 in Charchub's "Top 20 Contemporary Middle Eastern Artists in 2012-2014".[15]

In 2012 she received a Medal Award from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.[4]

References[]

  1. ^ Brown, DeNeen (May 6, 2012). "Challenging the fantasies of the harem". Washington Post. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015.
  2. ^ "Lalla Essaydi". brooklynmuseum.org. Brooklyn Museum. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
  3. ^ "Lalla Essaydi on Boston's art scene". Retrieved 9 March 2015.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b Nassar, Nelida (31 May 2012). "Lalla Essaydi SMFA 2012 Award Recipient Dispels Orientalists Western Prejudices". Berkshire Fine Arts. Retrieved 9 March 2015.
  5. ^ Monem, Nadine, ed. (2009). Contemporary Art in the Middle East. Artworld. London: Black Dog Publishing. p. 78. ISBN 978-1-906155-56-8.
  6. ^ Waterhouse, Ray (2009). "Lalla Essaydi: An Interview". Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art. 24 (1): 144–149. ISSN 2152-7792.
  7. ^ Brown, DeNeen (2012-05-05). "Artist Lalla Essaydi challenges stereotypes of women in Islamic cultures". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2021-05-05.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b Errazzouki, Samia (16 May 2012). "Artistic Depictions of Arab Women: An Interview with Artist Lalla Essaydi". Jadaliyya. Retrieved 9 March 2015.
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b Essaydi, Lalla (2005). Converging Territories. New York: PowerHouse Books. pp. 26–29. ISBN 9781576872567.
  10. ^ Rocca, Anna (Fall 2014). "In Search of Beauty in Space: Interview with Lalla Essaydi". Dalhousie French Studies. 103 (Women from the Maghreb: Looking Back and Moving Forward): 119–127. JSTOR 43487469.
  11. ^ Cheers, Imani M. (May 9, 2012). "Q&A: Lalla Essaydi Challenges Muslim, Gender Stereotypes at Museum of African Art". PBS NewsHour.
  12. ^ Chute, James (1 July 2015). "Making eye contact". The San Diego Union Tribune. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
  13. ^ "The Alfond Collection of Contemporary Art at Rollins College". Retrieved March 9, 2015.
  14. ^ Goodman, edited by Abigail Ross (2013). Art for Rollins: the Alfond Collection of Contemporary Art. Winter Park, Fla.: Cornell Fine Arts Museum. ISBN 978-0-9792280-2-5.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  15. ^ Ehsani, Ehsan; Rokhsari, Hossein. "Middle Eastern Titans: Top 20 Contemporary Middle Eastern Artists in 2012-2014". Charchub. Retrieved 7 February 2015.

External Links[]

  1. ^ "LALLA ESSAYDI". lallaessaydi.com. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
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