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Twin Town High (vol. 8) |
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Sheherizade: Risking the Passage @ El Colegio Gallery
Wednesday 19 February @ 12:33:37 |
 by Jenny Assef
Two years ago, local artist Hend Al-Mansour began to crave company. For a long time, she’d been raising questions about the contemporary identity of Muslim women, and her work had become a sort of mirror. She wanted to see the same questions viewed through other artists’ eyes, to glimpse an emerging collective imagination. In short, she wanted to have a group show.
Eclipse of the Moon (detail) by Hend Al-Mansour
She enrolled jurors and gave them the following requirements: the artists must be Muslim women; they must be dealing with that identity in their artwork; and they must be visionary in their approach. From 26 entries, the jurors picked nine.
Al-Mansour wanted ideas that were rigorously fresh. Judging by the end result, her expectations were met. Sheherazade: Risking the Passage features artists who fit the prescribed criteria but vary greatly in aesthetic and background. Their works range from stark to lush, from traditional to post-modern. They present an array of opinions on topics like veiling and the role of women in Islam, without falling into oversimplification. These artists celebrate and critique simultaneously, taking an honest look at the complex, multilayered nature of experience.
Sheherazade, the mythological woman for whom the exhibit is named, engaged a malevolent ruler with her stories. Likewise, much of the show deals with narrative. Doris Bittar’s work does so literally, with text and dialogue printed on sheer sheets, while Kitty Aal’s photography series “Habiba in Blue” suggests the landscape of a single woman’s life by offering momentary distillations. Hend Al-Mansour’s “Autobiography” invites the viewer to remove his or her shoes and step into a built representation of Al-Mansour’s memories.
Hearing about the show inspired Michelle Mehri Mousavi to dive for the first time into autobiography. Her film “Both Sides” combines images of chador-wearing women walking through the desert with shots of dense Los Angeles traffic. “What I was trying to do was juxtapose American and Iranian cultural images to address issues of invisibility and assimilation, which are two really big things in my life right now,” she explains. Mousavi grew up in a small Illinois town where her family members were the only Muslims. “I became such an expert at assimilating,” she says. “It was an essential survival skill, but it turned on me. In the film, I was trying to encapsulate those feelings of loss.”
Set to a haunting score that merges music with found sounds, “Both Sides” provides the exhibit’s anchor, demonstrating what it means to risk passage between two cultures while struggling to keep the self intact.
Sheherazade: Risking the Passage runs through Mar 15. El Colegio Gallery, 4137 Bloomington Ave. S., Mpls. Gallery hours are M-Th, noon to 5 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays 5-10 p.m.; Sundays 2-8 p.m. 612-728-5727.
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