works
Reclaiming the Orient 
“Oriental” Women
2021 




As a Middle Eastern woman living in the West, my research focuses on decolonizing methodologies, particularly regarding the Western perspective on the terms "Orient" and "Orientalism," and the "Oriental" woman. One of the tactics I use to enact this is pixelation.

-The pixelation method entails obscuring images and topics that have been subject to Western exoticization and fetishization; paintings by so-called Western Orientalists filled with unrealistic fantasies of Islamic/Middle Eastern culture, such as images of royal harems and naked snake-charmers. In this interactive artwork, as the viewer gets closer to the image, the pixels (squares) become larger, and consequently, the image becomes more blurred. As a result, the viewer, symbolically representing anyone outside of a culture, is compelled to step back to gain a better view: Appropriate Cultural Distance. However, the image always remains slightly distorted, indicating the unattainability of truly understanding the cultural reality of anyone other than oneself.