Photo Gallery: Lalla Essaydi’s Harem Girls

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The large-scale photographs in Lalla Essaydi’s most recent series, Harem, examine the complex reality of female identity in the Muslim world by coupling Islamic calligraphy (applied by hand with henna) and Orientalist imagery from the Western painting tradition in her work. The artist, who grew up in Morocco, lived in Saudi Arabia for many years and now lives in New York City. “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,” she has said. Click through to check out some of her photographs, which are on view at New York’s Edwynn Houk Gallery through January 15th.

Lalla Essaydi, LFM Revisited #4, 2010

Lalla Essaydi, Harem #14, 2009

Lalla Essaydi, Harem #4, 2009

Lalla Essaydi, Harem #18B, triptych

Lalla Essaydi, Harem #10, 2009

Lalla Essaydi, Harem #8, 2009

Lalla Essaydi, LFM Revisited #1, 2010

Lalla Essaydi, Les Femmes du Maroc: Harem Women Writing, 2008

Lalla Essaydi, Les Femmes du Maroc: Fumee D’Ambre Gris, 2008

Lalla Essaydi, Les Femmes du Maroc: Reclining Odalisque, 2008

Lalla Essaydi, Les Femmes du Maroc: Light of the Harem, 2008

Lalla Essaydi, Les Femmes du Maroc: Outdoor Gossip, 2008

Lalla Essaydi, Les Femmes du Maroc: Harem Beauty #2, 2008

Lalla Essaydi, Bullets #5, 2009