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As a foreigner living in the Middle East, I was often caught between a desire to look at covered women and the realization that the clothing worn was expressly designed to discourage looking. Over the course of a six-month residency at the Textile Arts Center in Brooklyn, I explored this tension by researching the history and art of traditional and contemporary Islamic dress and by experimenting with textiles, ink, and threads. I ordered an Afghani chadori burka directly from Kabul and dissected the garment as a basis for my own creations. |
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“My burkas are vibrant and liberated in the face of the tensions that exist on all levels of contemporary veiling.”
Denise Maroney, Visibly Veiled, 2011. Silk organza and silk chiffon with cotton thread embroidery, Mobile 5 x 5 x 5 ft. Installation view at Textile Arts Center, Brooklyn. Photo credit: Rhea Karam. Courtesy of the artist.
Suspension of the Covered Woman
Denise Maroney
As a foreigner living in the Middle East, I was often caught between a desire to look at covered women and the realization that the clothing worn was expressly designed to discourage looking.
Over the course of a six-month residency at the Textile Arts Center in Brooklyn, I explored this tension by researching the history and art of traditional and contemporary Islamic dress and by experimenting with textiles, ink, and threads. I ordered an Afghani chadori burka directly from Kabul and dissected the garment as a basis for my own creations.
The Afghan chadori burka is the most extreme mode of veiling. As is well known, it is a garment that has been abused by the Taliban and stigmatized by the western media. Rarely is the burka observed for what it simply is: pieces of fabric sewn together. I wanted to enchant western viewers with something they habitually find horrifying. By recreating this familiar garment in an art context, I ask my viewers to reflect on our own social conditioning and understanding of the Islamic world.
Cultural, political, and religious discourses are played out in women’s clothing. As a textile artist, I am interested in seeing how textile governs the beautiful and the appealing to a western eye. Emma Tarlo’s maxim, “The covered woman is simultaneously present and absent, public and private,” calls to me. In the installation of my burkas pictured here, I play with the boundaries of the public and private. Sheer textiles convey a transparency not often associated with extremes of Islamic fashion; sheer organzas and silk chiffons are expensive, in contrast to the standard cheap polyester used in many burkas on the market today.
This piece is an installation of five of my burkas hung from a mobile by invisible fishing wire. In response to the garments’ suspension, the viewer immediately suspends her belief that these garments are meant to be worn in daily life. While the embroidery, bold colors, and expansive pleats evoke butterflies in flight; the frozen poses create an eerie, ghostly effect. My burkas are vibrant and liberated in the face of the tensions that exist on all levels of contemporary veiling.
