Engaging with Portraits:

Explore issues of identity, culture, and daily life through the work of Lalla Essaydi.

Lalla Essaydi: Revisions National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian May 9, 2012 – February 24, 2013

“In my art, I wish to present myself through multiple lenses — as artist, as Moroccan, as Saudi, as traditionalist, as Liberal, as Muslim. In short, I invite the viewer to resist stereotypes.” -Lalla Essaydi

La Grand Odalisque by Essaydi La Grande Odalisque by Ingres

LALLA ESSAYDI: Moroccan artist, Lalla Essaydi, addresses fantasies of women existing as exotic objects of beauty and sensual pleasure in her signature photographs and paintings. The exoticising of Arab women was introduced into the Western world through "Orientalist" paintings of the 19th century by such noted European artists as Ingres, Delacroix and Gerome. She takes motifs and compositional forms from these 19th-century paintings, such as La Grand Odalisque by Ingres, and infuses her photographs and paintings with her own exquisite and unique messages for an entirely different and striking message about Arab women and self-expression. She manipulates the sacred art form of Islamic calligraphy, traditionally taught only to men, and writes in journal form with painstaking detail with henna on female bodies and backdrops. By creating images that call attention to the highly complex realities of Arab women, she reframes stereotypical notions of culture and gender. Lalla Essaydi’s work translates well to this generation, as many students feel an affinity to bi-cultural and/or multi-racial households in the United States. Art Activity: Grades 9-12

Brainstorm for definitions of identity. Are there different types of identity?

Think about how you would describe yourself, values, daily life.

Ask students to spend a week taking pictures of objects, places, or activities, which represent their daily life. Have them also keep an accompanying journal. Print the pictures and have students write short captions for their photos. Bind the journal. Have a facilitated discussion of diversity and commonality, stereotypes and labels.

Take a digital photograph and print it out for each student.

Ask students to create a representation of themselves by enhancing the printed photograph: choose to hand-color, draw objects, or create a sense of place using the classroom materials supplied.

Discuss how the questions you asked yourself informed your artistic choices.