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Lot Essay
With a combination of Islamic calligraphy and representations of the female body, Lalla Essaydi addresses the complex realities of being a female in the Arab world. Through a unique perspective, she returns to her Moroccan roots as a grown woman caught somewhere between her past and present. Her work is preoccupied by the epics of time and space as she documents them both metaphorically and physically.
On a mission to record the physical spaces of her childhood and see how they impacted the growth of the metaphorical spaces, Essaydi journeyed back to Morocco to photograph these places before they were lost. Although the photographs she has taken can be considered autobiographical in a sense, Essaydi states that “they can also be taken as reflections on the life of Arab women in general,” (Lalla Essaydi, Artist Statement). She documents her own experiences growing up as an Arab woman and looking at those experiences through a looking glass from the West. Using the photographs to better understand the importance of architectural spaces in Islamic culture, she is restraining the women within the space and also “confining them to their “proper” place, a place bounded by walls and controlled by men.” (Artist Statement)
By applying calligraphy to the women’s bodies, she is committing to a sacred Islamic art that is usually unapproachable to women. To apply this writing in henna, an embellishment worn and applied only by women, adds a contradiction to this already risqué paradox. This way, Essaydi allows the henna and calligraphy to be seen as both a veil and as an expressive statement.
In her series, Harem, the artist remains exploring the themes and qualities of her previous works, however this time around she places them in a new context – Dar Al Basha, an architecturally animated Moroccan palace. In the present work that Christie’s is pleased to offer, Harem #18, we can see a woman lounging in a 19th-century style pose through the open doors of a harem. Dressed in vibrant blue and green fabrics that are decorated with the same elaborate Islamic designs as those seen in the palace's mosaics, wood carvings and stained glass, the exposed parts of the female’s body are adorned with calligraphy written in henna.
The henna calligraphy is only seen on the women's visible flesh areas, whereas the rest of their bodies are camouflaged with the background's geometric patterns. As in several 19th Century European masterpieces, from Eugène Delacroix to Edouard Manet, Essaydi's models engage the viewer through their staring eyes, in order to re-assert their image in today's society and to provoke the Westerners' traditional representation of women in a harem.
On a mission to record the physical spaces of her childhood and see how they impacted the growth of the metaphorical spaces, Essaydi journeyed back to Morocco to photograph these places before they were lost. Although the photographs she has taken can be considered autobiographical in a sense, Essaydi states that “they can also be taken as reflections on the life of Arab women in general,” (Lalla Essaydi, Artist Statement). She documents her own experiences growing up as an Arab woman and looking at those experiences through a looking glass from the West. Using the photographs to better understand the importance of architectural spaces in Islamic culture, she is restraining the women within the space and also “confining them to their “proper” place, a place bounded by walls and controlled by men.” (Artist Statement)
By applying calligraphy to the women’s bodies, she is committing to a sacred Islamic art that is usually unapproachable to women. To apply this writing in henna, an embellishment worn and applied only by women, adds a contradiction to this already risqué paradox. This way, Essaydi allows the henna and calligraphy to be seen as both a veil and as an expressive statement.
In her series, Harem, the artist remains exploring the themes and qualities of her previous works, however this time around she places them in a new context – Dar Al Basha, an architecturally animated Moroccan palace. In the present work that Christie’s is pleased to offer, Harem #18, we can see a woman lounging in a 19th-century style pose through the open doors of a harem. Dressed in vibrant blue and green fabrics that are decorated with the same elaborate Islamic designs as those seen in the palace's mosaics, wood carvings and stained glass, the exposed parts of the female’s body are adorned with calligraphy written in henna.
The henna calligraphy is only seen on the women's visible flesh areas, whereas the rest of their bodies are camouflaged with the background's geometric patterns. As in several 19th Century European masterpieces, from Eugène Delacroix to Edouard Manet, Essaydi's models engage the viewer through their staring eyes, in order to re-assert their image in today's society and to provoke the Westerners' traditional representation of women in a harem.