Curator Masum Momaya developed this proposal during the 2013 Curatorial Intensive in Londonderry.
In the last 30 years, American media interest and American foreign policy stakes in Islamic communities, cultures, and countries have grown. In the process, Muslim women have often found themselves gazed at, stereotyped, and appropriated as justifications for martial and military intervention. Muslim women’s manners of dress and
codes of mobility have been used to characterize cultures and brand them as backwards and barbaric.
Undoubtedly, Muslim women themselves––like their non-Muslim female counterparts globally––have experienced violence and oppression. Still, artistic representations that affirm stereotypes have been given the most visibility, with differences among Muslim women mostly erased, visually and conceptually.
I am developing the concept for a future exhibition entitled Gazing Back, in which I hope to feature Muslim women’s portraits of self-representation.
In Gazing Back, I wish to share the work of artists who challenge, subvert, and/or transgress stereotypical representations and mainstream narratives by gazing back at viewers, the United States and American imperialism/foreign policy and its impact on communities, in Muslim-majority countries.
Ideally, this exhibition will include some existing works and some works created through a discursive process in which artists consider the history of the gaze and history of self-portraiture and render what it means for them to gaze back through self-representation, given the gendered nature of the gaze and the historical and geopolitical context of United States relations with the Islamic world.
Artists under consideration include Samira Abbasy, Fariba Salma Alam, Bushra Almutawakel, Ghada Amer, Homa Arkani, Saba Barnard, Layla Essaydi, Dalaa Faytrouni, Shadi Ghadirian, Mariam Ghani, Maimouna Guerresi, Hannah Habbibi, Zeina Iaali, Mona Kamal, Asma Kazmi, Shirin Neshat, Fajr Soliman, Helen Zughaib, and Karima Zuhair.
Learn More
To learn more about this proposal please email Masum Momaya at masummomaya@gmail.com. To learn more about the Curatorial Intensive email info@curatorsintl.org.
