burqas

These garments were made in collaboration with my mother. Displayed on mannequins and used in performance, the works combine a quintessentially "Muslim" form with "western" materials.  The garments include one burqa, a khimar with niqab, and a khimar. These garments exist on one end of the vast spectrum of garments worn by Muslim women globally. The form, however, is loaded with a particular cultural meaning in the United States post 9/11.   

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I was thinking about:

  1. Hybridity 

  2. Lily Pulitzer is ridiculous

  3. I can think of very few fabrics that are truly “Western" bc of white folks tendency to steal culture, labor, and credit

  4. There is power in seeing without being seen

  5. There is power in being seen

film still

Alpha Delta Burqa at the Lily Pulitzer store, at Southpoint Mall in Durham, NC