Les Femmes du Maroc by Lalla Essaydi at the Decordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln,MA.
For anyone familiar with the Orientalist works of Delacroix, Gérôme or Ingres, this will be a delightful experience. Originally from Morocco; Lalla Essaydi is a New York-based, Boston-educated photographer and painter. Her exhibit Les Femmes du Maroc is a series of photographs with a fresh take on Orientalism.
Based on Orientalist paintings including Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres’ The Grand Odalisque (1819), Eugene Delacroix’s Le Femmes d’Algiers (1834) and Jean-Léon Gérôme‘s Almeh with Pipe(1873), Essaydi creates captivating images of Moroccan women draped in layers of fabric and bands of hennawork and calligraphy.
Compellingly impressive is the intricate hennawork on the bodies of her models, whom Essaydi refuses to call “models” but instead refers to them as Moroccan women who were actively engaged in her artistic process. Instead of geometric, floral or vegetal patterns that are usually common in henna designs, Essaydi’s are calligraphic inscriptions that flow from the bodies of the figures to their garments to eventually blend in the background. Though the figures do mix and blend in with their background, they stand out as individual captivating forms.
If you are an Arabic reader, the calligraphy would compel you to stop and read, to try and make sense of it, and look for hidden clues to the figures in front of you, but later come to realize that Essaydi is not intending for it to make sense, but is attempting to rather add to the mesmerizing effect.
Perhaps rudimentary is the absence of male figures in these images, but that may be obvious from the title and theme of the exhibition. Also noteworthy is the fact that the labels provide images of the original paintings that Essaydi is reinterpreting. The label accompanying Essaydi’s version of Gérôme’s Almeh with Pipe, states that the Mathaf Gallery in London which owns the painting, refused to provide the exhibition with an image of the original, claiming that Esssaydi’s work criticizes Gérôme work in portraying women! Well, hopefully they know that Gérôme work belongs to a genre and school of thought that has been widely criticized over the years, just ask Edward Said!
To the viewer, Essaydi’s work is not a critique but a refreshingly-new take on an overly-exhausted issue. Regardless of the contrast to the original Orientalist works, the photographs are powerful in their own sense, though when contrasted to their 19th century counterparts, the effect is even more striking.
In the end, I am glad I went to see........... Les Femmes du Maroc.
For anyone familiar with the Orientalist works of Delacroix, Gérôme or Ingres, this will be a delightful experience. Originally from Morocco; Lalla Essaydi is a New York-based, Boston-educated photographer and painter. Her exhibit Les Femmes du Maroc is a series of photographs with a fresh take on Orientalism.
Based on Orientalist paintings including Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres’ The Grand Odalisque (1819), Eugene Delacroix’s Le Femmes d’Algiers (1834) and Jean-Léon Gérôme‘s Almeh with Pipe(1873), Essaydi creates captivating images of Moroccan women draped in layers of fabric and bands of hennawork and calligraphy.
Compellingly impressive is the intricate hennawork on the bodies of her models, whom Essaydi refuses to call “models” but instead refers to them as Moroccan women who were actively engaged in her artistic process. Instead of geometric, floral or vegetal patterns that are usually common in henna designs, Essaydi’s are calligraphic inscriptions that flow from the bodies of the figures to their garments to eventually blend in the background. Though the figures do mix and blend in with their background, they stand out as individual captivating forms.
If you are an Arabic reader, the calligraphy would compel you to stop and read, to try and make sense of it, and look for hidden clues to the figures in front of you, but later come to realize that Essaydi is not intending for it to make sense, but is attempting to rather add to the mesmerizing effect.
Perhaps rudimentary is the absence of male figures in these images, but that may be obvious from the title and theme of the exhibition. Also noteworthy is the fact that the labels provide images of the original paintings that Essaydi is reinterpreting. The label accompanying Essaydi’s version of Gérôme’s Almeh with Pipe, states that the Mathaf Gallery in London which owns the painting, refused to provide the exhibition with an image of the original, claiming that Esssaydi’s work criticizes Gérôme work in portraying women! Well, hopefully they know that Gérôme work belongs to a genre and school of thought that has been widely criticized over the years, just ask Edward Said!
To the viewer, Essaydi’s work is not a critique but a refreshingly-new take on an overly-exhausted issue. Regardless of the contrast to the original Orientalist works, the photographs are powerful in their own sense, though when contrasted to their 19th century counterparts, the effect is even more striking.
In the end, I am glad I went to see........... Les Femmes du Maroc.
