A shot from Picture an Arab Man

Tamara Abdul Hadi is an Iraqi-Candian artist and photojournalist, whose recent photograph series entitled ‘Picture This’ is an attempt to deconstruct Western stereotypes of Arab men. Abdul Hadi highlights that a primary motivator for her work has been her own experience of Western misrepresentations of both Arab men and women. While this is not Muslim-focused per se, I must admit that both Arab and Muslim are often confounded and intermingled. Thus, her work is as important for Muslim identities and representations as those of Arabs.

The work is a powerful and intimate look at Arab men, specifically Tunisian and Moroccan. And, according to an interview with Abdul Hadi, she believes that the artistic process invited the subjects to reflect on their own roles and positionalities in society. This, I believe, is an important aspect of any artwork.

However, I wonder: For how long, do Arab and Muslim artists have to direct their work towards Western stereotypes? Would it not be more liberating to work through a huge blindspot, which is our own stereotypes of ourselves? While Abdul Hadi’s work is truly refreshing, it still falls in this paradigm. Of course, this is an important attempt at reclaiming one’s identity and heritage; however, it still designates western audiences as the receivers of this media. It also subscribes to the idea that it is western opinions that are significant, which they are given the fact that they can create war and end war and so on. But, still, I do question the hegemony of ‘art against western stereotypes’.

An artist that may provide insight into ways in which Arab artists can explore local issues related to Islam is Nadine Labaki, whose work I will discuss in forthcoming post.

 

Interview with Abdul Hadi:  http://www.reorientmag.com/2012/11/tamara-abdul-hadi-picture-an-arab-man/