Princess Hijab Editorial

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

  • 8/3/2019 Princess Hijab Editorial

    1/6

    I make pictures and someone comes inand calls it art

    Willem de KooningLet me begin this post by explaining that my religious views are most adequately summarized by the

    secular prophet, Chuck Klosterman. I espouse a partial belief in everything; Im prone to believe that

    just about any religious ideology is potentially accurate, regardless of how ridiculous it might seem (or

    be). Consequently, this post is not about religious dogma; it is not about the Quran, the Hadith, the

    Old Testament, or The Letter Killeth of Jim Jones. However, like these texts, I do wish to examine

    the dichotomy of creation and destruction, coverage and exposure, art and science.

    With that grandiose opening, let me introduce the primary antagonist of this post: Princess

    Hijab.Princess Hijabis an anonymous Paris-based guerilla (graffitti?) artist who uses a jumbo marker

    pen or dripping black paint to hijab-ize billboards featuring scantily clad or provocatively poised

    models. She began her niqab intervention campaign in 2006, almost two years after the French

    Senate approved a law banning Muslim head scarvesand other ostensible religious apparel (e.g.

    large Christian crosses, Jewish skullcaps, and Sikh turbans). More recently, in September 2010, theFrench Senate passed a bill banning the niquab and the burqa (face covering veils). In light of these

    events, some have interpreted Princess Hijabs art as a conservative religious reaction to the burqa

    ban and to the depraved exhibition of nakedness and sexuality. Others regard her as an

    feminist provocateur, crusading against the exploitation of women and agitating them to take

    ownership of their bodies.

    http://books.google.com/books?id=8bvFIHE0u4kC&pg=PA228&lpg=PA228&dq=chuck+klosterman+religion+partial+belief&source=bl&ots=KOr_c9Xl0K&sig=yfvgJk8THKfGCi_tOp25ogNOhNg&hl=en&ei=iFVSTpGdMcPdgQfo_d35Bg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttp://books.google.com/books?id=8bvFIHE0u4kC&pg=PA228&lpg=PA228&dq=chuck+klosterman+religion+partial+belief&source=bl&ots=KOr_c9Xl0K&sig=yfvgJk8THKfGCi_tOp25ogNOhNg&hl=en&ei=iFVSTpGdMcPdgQfo_d35Bg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttp://books.google.com/books?id=8bvFIHE0u4kC&pg=PA228&lpg=PA228&dq=chuck+klosterman+religion+partial+belief&source=bl&ots=KOr_c9Xl0K&sig=yfvgJk8THKfGCi_tOp25ogNOhNg&hl=en&ei=iFVSTpGdMcPdgQfo_d35Bg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttp://twitter.com/princesshijab_http://twitter.com/princesshijab_http://twitter.com/princesshijab_http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A28555-2004Mar3&notFound=truehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A28555-2004Mar3&notFound=truehttp://starckmarcandthefarc.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/dolche_4_p.jpghttp://starckmarcandthefarc.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/3825135526_185c6363f7.jpghttp://starckmarcandthefarc.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/traditional_air.jpghttp://starckmarcandthefarc.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/dolche_4_p.jpghttp://starckmarcandthefarc.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/3825135526_185c6363f7.jpghttp://starckmarcandthefarc.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/traditional_air.jpghttp://starckmarcandthefarc.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/dolche_4_p.jpghttp://starckmarcandthefarc.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/3825135526_185c6363f7.jpghttp://starckmarcandthefarc.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/traditional_air.jpghttp://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A28555-2004Mar3&notFound=truehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A28555-2004Mar3&notFound=truehttp://twitter.com/princesshijab_http://books.google.com/books?id=8bvFIHE0u4kC&pg=PA228&lpg=PA228&dq=chuck+klosterman+religion+partial+belief&source=bl&ots=KOr_c9Xl0K&sig=yfvgJk8THKfGCi_tOp25ogNOhNg&hl=en&ei=iFVSTpGdMcPdgQfo_d35Bg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
  • 8/3/2019 Princess Hijab Editorial

    2/6

    However, Princess Hijab maintains that she is not defending or championing the cause of any group.

    The Princess has told reporters that she began her experimentation with veils while making spandex

    outfits that enveloped bodies more art than fashion, she says. To (try to) understand her

    intentions, one must consider her artistic background and examine the roots of graffiti in abstract

    expressionism.

    The artist Susan Stewart described graffiti as the romantic heir to abstraction expressionism.

    Abstract Expressionism is an avante-garde artistic movement that flourished in New York in the

    1940s. Its roster included artists who repudiated accepted conventions in techniques and subject

    matter The New York School sought to communicate important truths of human experience and

    psyche through simple, abstract forms or symbols rather than purely literal depictions. They asserted

    that the symbols they painted had no explicit meaning but derived from the artists unconscious.

    Nonetheless, these symbols were communicative because they could speak to the same faculty in the

    viewer.

    Art criticspurport that specific patterns of recognition that enable

    perception and cognition underlie the variety of compositional formats used by

    the Abstract Expressionists. Because of our physical experience of existing and acting in a universe

    (e.g. perceiving the environment, moving our bodies, and exerting and experiencing force), we form

    fundamental conceptual structures which we use to organize thought across a range of more abstract

    http://www.bc.edu/schools/cas/finearts/faculty/arthistory/cernuschi.htmlhttp://www.bc.edu/schools/cas/finearts/faculty/arthistory/cernuschi.htmlhttp://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/show-full/piece/?search=Abstract%20Expressionism&page=4&f=Movement&cr=30http://starckmarcandthefarc.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/bristol-street-art.jpghttp://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/show-full/piece/?search=Abstract%20Expressionism&page=4&f=Movement&cr=30http://starckmarcandthefarc.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/bristol-street-art.jpghttp://www.bc.edu/schools/cas/finearts/faculty/arthistory/cernuschi.html
  • 8/3/2019 Princess Hijab Editorial

    3/6

    domains. For example, the containment schema structures our experience of putting objects into and

    taking them out of a bounded area. These patterns are metaphorically extended to structure

    nonphysical, nonvisual experiences. For example, we get lost in a book, we fall in love, we

    leave outsome details.

    Additionally, abstract expressionism is often characterized

    by the manner in which the pictorial space is created. Abstract expressionists emphasized the open,

    more immediate surface and used paint in a manner that allowed the surface to breathe. They did not

    attempt to disguise the canvas as an easel painting by using insulating finishes. Instead, they used

    enamel paint to reflect light across the surface of the canvas or soaked thinned paint into the

    unprimed canvas. Elmer Bischoff explained these practices by describing the canvas as the area of

    search. Whereas artists who used representational forms considered the canvas as an illusionist

    window onto the world, the abstract expressionists handled it as an autonomous, self-referentialobject.

    Like abstract expressionism, the visual vocabulary ofgraffiti art does not include objects or events but rather forms and features that .communicate by

    evoking physical associations. In fact, graffiti artists have clarified the tradition of using words in

    graffiti by stating that that they interpret the alphabet as a set of letters which provide abstract

    structures like musical notes. They seek to obliterate the meaning of the word, using it as a reference

    point from which they can begin to improvise.

    http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/65.247http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=80116http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/65.247http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=80116
  • 8/3/2019 Princess Hijab Editorial

    4/6

    You may wonder why I have been rambling about abstract and nonrepresentational art. You may point

    out the Princess Hijab reproduces one object, the hijab an explicit subject matter. However, I would

    contend that Princess Hijab is not rendering the hijab as an object, but rather as an abstract symbol

    that can stimulate certain reactions in a more powerful way than conventional modes of expression.

    Princess Hijab uses the hijab to compel viewers to consider the act and experience of covering.

    Warningsh&ts about to get dense

    In his book,Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things,George Lakoff argued that individuals automatically

    categorize people, animals, and physical objects. He purported that we structure our knowledge of the

    world in terms of idealized cognitive models (ICMs), which include image schemas. Image schemas

    emerge as meaninful structures for us chiefly at the level of our bodily movements through space,

    our manipulation of objects, and our perceptual interactions. Reasoning patterns based on image

    schemata (imagistic reasoning patterns) are mapped onto reasoning patterns based on abstract

    reasoning (abstract reasoning patterns) via conceptual metaphors. Burgman and Lakoff describe

    three variations of the over schema that can indicate a spatial relationship between a trajector

    (figure) and landmark (ground). These include the above-across schema, the above schema, and the

    cover schema. When the cover schema is salient, the trajector is an object whose two-dimensional

    extent covers the landmark (extends to the edges or beyond the landmark). Usually, the trajector is

    http://starckmarcandthefarc.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/banksy-graffiti-graffiti-removal.jpghttp://www.fed.cuhk.edu.hk/staff/paper/mmchiu/doc/Lakoff%20--%20Women,%20Fire,%20and%20Dangerous%20Things.pdfhttp://www.fed.cuhk.edu.hk/staff/paper/mmchiu/doc/Lakoff%20--%20Women,%20Fire,%20and%20Dangerous%20Things.pdfhttp://www.fed.cuhk.edu.hk/staff/paper/mmchiu/doc/Lakoff%20--%20Women,%20Fire,%20and%20Dangerous%20Things.pdfhttp://www.fed.cuhk.edu.hk/staff/paper/mmchiu/doc/Lakoff%20--%20Women,%20Fire,%20and%20Dangerous%20Things.pdfhttp://starckmarcandthefarc.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/princess-hijab-inde_614825t.jpghttp://www.pesekgraffiti.com/top-graffiti-alphabets-letters-collections/olympus-digital-camera-2http://starckmarcandthefarc.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/princess-hijab-inde_614825t.jpghttp://www.pesekgraffiti.com/top-graffiti-alphabets-letters-collections/olympus-digital-camera-2http://www.fed.cuhk.edu.hk/staff/paper/mmchiu/doc/Lakoff%20--%20Women,%20Fire,%20and%20Dangerous%20Things.pdfhttp://starckmarcandthefarc.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/banksy-graffiti-graffiti-removal.jpg
  • 8/3/2019 Princess Hijab Editorial

    5/6

    construed as being vertically above, and in contact with, the landmark (e.g. the table cloth is over

    the table).

    Like the abstract expressionists, graffiti artists rely on the

    cognitive schema, such as the over schema to communicate with their audience. When the viewer

    perceives graffiti, the over schema is activated. The viewer conceives the graffiti as the trajector and

    the public surface as the landmark. The viewer will understand that the grafitti is covering the wall.

    Based on his/her knowledge and experience, he may interpret the graffiti as beautiful art hiding the

    austerity of the urban environment or as ugly vandalism defacing the loveliness of the urban

    environment. Cognitive schema structure our thinking, but do not define our thoughts. Abstract

    reasoning depends on an individuals knowledge base.

    Princess Hijabs oeuvre also activates the over

    schema; however, in a more complex manner. The viewer perceives the graffiti as a trajector and the

    billboard as the landmark; however he/she also perceives the hijab as the trajector and the body

    (more specifically, the flesh) as the landmark. Once the over schema is activated and the viewer

    begins to engage in abstract reasoning, he/she may wonder if it is the graffiti which covers the flesh

    or the hijab which covers the billboard. It is the complex reaction that PHs art incites which makes it

    so powerful and ultimately makes HER so powerful. By manipulating our perception, she can

    manipulate our cognition. We are forced to acknowledge that the advertisement is not the models it

    represents nor is PHs sketch/paint the hijab it represents. Reality becomes illusory.

    http://starckmarcandthefarc.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/corner-graffiti-wall-paint.jpghttp://books.google.com/books?id=KbqxnX3_uc0C&pg=PA391&lpg=PA391&dq=lakoff+descartes&source=bl&ots=lfIcffbtmf&sig=2D43DvH7be_HSBXPbKrOtFztAAI&hl=en&ei=_GlcTsmFEsLZgQfDlYGAAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBkQ6AEwAAhttp://starckmarcandthefarc.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/corner-graffiti-wall-paint.jpghttp://books.google.com/books?id=KbqxnX3_uc0C&pg=PA391&lpg=PA391&dq=lakoff+descartes&source=bl&ots=lfIcffbtmf&sig=2D43DvH7be_HSBXPbKrOtFztAAI&hl=en&ei=_GlcTsmFEsLZgQfDlYGAAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBkQ6AEwAA
  • 8/3/2019 Princess Hijab Editorial

    6/6

    So with that, I leave you with one more question to stir some more abstract thought. If I am

    covering Princess Hijabs story in this blog post, have I affected your reasoning?

    http://starckmarcandthefarc.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/img091122082738_p-e1263502355143.jpg