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April 15, 2008 9:45 am
Many Westerners associate Arab womanhood with the absence of visual stimulation that the chador enforces. But as Lebanese artist Nadine Kanso demonstrates, an Arab woman’s identity can be composed of as many clashing colors, references, and influences as any woman elsewhere. In “Rewind Ya Zaman,” her second solo show at Dubai’s B21 Gallery, Kanso presents 20 multi-layered photo assemblages juxtaposing contemporary newspaper clippings, photo portraits, and mementos of icons from the Arab nationalist movements of the forties, fifties, and sixties. In her mostly monochromatic montages, the faces of revered Palestinian politician George Habash, beloved Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum, and King Mohammed V overlap with products from cosmetic ads, models in shiny red cars, and slogans such as “God did not intend religion to be an exercise club.” The vibrant and varied results are a reminder that Arab culture is one in which women dress not only in chadors, but in clothes from New York and Paris, too.
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