Chromogenic print mounted to aluminum with a UV protective laminate 83 x 102 cm (33 x 40.2 in.)
$16,500About Lalla Essaydi
In photographs, paintings, installations, and films, Lalla Essaydi creates a dialogue juxtaposing past and present, as well as fantasy and reality. She references her own memories and experiences, art history, and contemporary cultural, social, and political realities in her native Morocco.
Essaydi grew up in Marrakesh in a privileged, traditionally Muslim household. Following schooling in Paris, she married and moved to Saudi Arabia, where she lived until her children left for school in the United States. She then studied painting at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris, before continuing her education in Boston.
While in Paris, she discovered the work of 19th-century Orientalists such as Jean-Léon Gérôme, whose paintings often featured titillating images of harems and seductive female nudes, or odalisques, which appealed to Western, male audiences. Essaydi knew such artworks portrayed fictions, but she was captivated by their exquisite technique.
She assumed viewers understood that the voyeuristic scenes were imaginary, but soon discovered she was mistaken. She notes, “Beauty is quite dangerous, as it lures the viewer into accepting the fantasy.” Essaydi uses art to reveal stereotypes and question assumptions about the veil, the harem, and the odalisque.
About EFA Morocco
EFA Morocco provides marginalized girls in rural Morocco with access to education. By eradicating the logistical, economic and social obstacles to high quality education, EFA enables these young women to fulfill their true potential.
EFA does this by building and running boarding houses for teenage girls close to schools, ensuring the girls can easily attend class every day and obtain a Baccalaureate degree.
