Unspoken Words: FREE Lecture at Frist- January 8 2009

Unspoken Words: Contemporary Women Artists from the Middle East and North Africa
Thursday, January 8, 6:30 p.m.
Auditorium, FREE

Dr. Maryam Ekhtiar, senior research associate in the department of Islamic Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, will discuss the art produced by women artists from the Middle East and North Africa with a particular focus on the work of Moroccan-born artist, Lalla Essaydi.

Interestingly, all of these artists use calligraphy as their chief mode of expression. They manipulate the letters, often transforming them beyond recognition, using ingenious and innovative methods, materials, and daring compositions. Some use the letters for purely aesthetic reasons while others reduce it to mere writing, signs, or ciphers as they grapple with issues of gender, socio-political orientation, and cultural identity.

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