# data[].attributes.body
1. In her artwork, Essaydi uses her own reflections from her journal as the caligraphy
2. Essaydi holds a BFA and an MFA in painting as well as photography
3. the subjects depicted in her artwork are family friends and acquaintances
4. Essaydi documents her own personal experiences, especially in the Harem series highlighting her time being isolated
5. Essaydi first learned about orientalist from viewing an artwork by Ingres in the Louvre

# data[].attributes.headline
Themes: orientalism, women's place in domestic spheres in islam

# data[].attributes.subject
Themes: orientalism, women's place in domestic spheres in islam

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Lalla Essaydi, Les Femmes Du Maroc Revisited #4, Photograph

# data[].attributes.body
Essaydi's goal with the Les Femmes Du Maroc series was centered around confronting the western idea of the odalisque and orientalism. Essaydi even states, "I want the viewer to become aware of the Orientalism as a projection of the sexual fantasies of Western male artists," calling attention to the way Eastern women are portrayed in art.
(Essaydi, Disrupting The Odalisque)

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Lalla Essaydi, Bullets #1, 2009, Photograph

# data[].attributes.body
In this image from her Bullets series, Essaydi is seen implementing the "orientalist" view of Arab women by sexualizing the figure, while also creating a feeling of discomfort. The figure is seen laying lifelessly on a ground of bullets, covered with bullets, suggesting towards the violence that happens against Arab women.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Lalla Essaydi, Converging Territories #30, 2004, Photograph

# data[].attributes.body
In this photograph, Essaydi includes women that are part of her family and their experiences in confinement after supposedly breaking the rules of Islam in their town. This photograph is very personal to the artist, as she herself had spent time in this isolation house as a youth, up to months at a time alone. By writing over these women with the calligraphic henna, Essaydi uses her voice amidst the silence of isolation. She utilizes art as a means which these women are able to talk to one another despite their situation.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Lalla Essaydi, Bullets Revisited #44, 2014, Photograph

# data[].attributes.body
In Essaydi's series of "Bullets Revisited", Essaydi discusses violence against women, specifically physical violence against women in Egypt during the Arab Spring, a series of anti-government protests and armed rebellions across the Middle East in the early 2010s. She showcases the women in this series wearing garments that look heavy, replacing the fabric with woven bullets to make clothing. By armoring the women with bullets as clothing, Essaydi weaponizes the women against the oppressors, giving the women the power. The transition of power is so beautifully seen with how the subject is positioned in this photograph, showing her sitting in a dominant way like a king would.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Lalla Essaydi, Les Femmes Du Maroc: La Grande Odalisque, 2008, Photograph

# data[].attributes.body
Essaydi produced this art piece mimicking the famous Grande Odalisque by French neoclassical artist Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. In this artwork, she challenges the concepts surrounding 19th century orientalism in art and artists depiction of Middle Eastern and North African women as "exotic". In her depiction of the Grande Odalisque, Essaydi shows the woman draped by a cloth with her common usage of henna all over the surrounding surfaces and woman's body. The subject does not appear sexual like shown in Ingres' work, rather relaxed and uninterested, showing Essaydi's critique of the sexualization of middle eastern women.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Lalla Essaydi, Silence of Thought #2, 2003, Photograph

# data[].attributes.body
In this artwork, Essaydi photographs a muslim woman resting upon a bed with her head propped up on a pillow. This piece of art harks back to western imagery that would portray women as meek and delicate but doing so with a twist that centers it very clearly into Arabic culture. Much of her artwork aims to call out the stereotypes and fetishazation of Arab culture done by Western European artists.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Lalla Essaydi, Converging Territories #11, 2003, Photograph

# data[].attributes.body
In many of Essaydi's artwork, she displays how women are limited to domestic spaces in Islamic countries. In this edition of Converging Territories, Essaydi showcases three women set in a triangle writing calligraphically on each other with henna. By inscribing the women with henna, Essaydi addresses how women are seen as decorative in the Islamic traditional sphere, while simultaneously arguing against their placement in society by utilizing an art form inaccessible to women in Islamic culture.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Lalla Essaydi, "Silence of Desire" #2, 2003, Photograph

# data[].attributes.body
In this photo, Essaydi explores the domestic spheres of women in Arab culture and expectations centered around them. Essaydi presents two women very close to each other, faces nearly touching, decorated with henna all over their bodies. This photograph discusses the lack of representation of women without men intertwined between them, especially in Islamic Arabic culture. By shooting this photograph, Essaydi discusses the hush around queer identities and existence in Arab countries, as many countries hold homosexual relationships punishable by death.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Lalla Essaydi, Harem #12, 2009, Photograph

# data[].attributes.body
In Essaydi's series "Harem", the artist explores the beauty in Arabic and Islamic culture while incorporating women into the artwork, celebrating femininity and beauty, while also arguing to the importance of women to culture. In this photograph, Essaydi showcases two women reclining on a booth with the fabric covering them perfectly matching the tile and fabric they are sitting on. By having them intertwined into the architecture, Essaydi shows that women are integral to the beauty and foundation of Islamic culture. She uses the word "harem", typically applied to a household for women separate from men, as a place of pride and strength and community.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Lalla Essaydi, Converging Territories #25, 2004, Photograph

# data[].attributes.body
This artwork is yet another edition of her series "Converging Territories", showing the role women hold in Arabic culture as well as Essaydi's personal experience growing up in Morocco and Saudi Arabia as an Islamic woman. This piece once again displays a muslim woman as a background piece, subverting her to isolation and decoration. Much of her artwork demonstrates how women are unseen and set aside in Arab culture, showing them as a part of the background to emphasize how they are simply an afterthought to society.

# data[].attributes.body
Lalla Essaydi is a Moroccan artist that uses photography as her main mode of expression. Her art focuses on her relation to Islam and Islamic art being a muslim Arab woman herself. Her photographs typically consist of women being included into the art of Islamic geometric design as well as Arabic script. The way she includes the women figures in her photography is so appealing, including them as part of the background while simultaneously making them stand out.

Essaydi says, regarding her art, that she is "confining them (women) to their "proper" place, a place bounded by walls and controlled by men" (Brooklyn Museum). Her art is a rebuttal to the constricting control that women are subject to in conservative countries like Saudi Arabia, which she lived in for many years. She makes the women as a part of the decoration, speaking about the role that women play in their patriarchal society.