Hushed, 2020
Cover: White Silk, 54”x 180”
Veil: Stranded Copper, 17”x 24”
It is a series of photographs taken by cellphone representing two different women. It explores two different situations for a woman at home during a pandemic using a face mask as a symbol of 'Stay safe, Stay home' and a woman with an unwanted and mandatory hijab. By taking these photos, I am interested in comparing the relationship between these two women with all the contrasts and similarities between them at the same time. Compulsory Quarantine and Compulsory Hijab both aiming women's bodies, according to the report about increasing the domestic violence during Covid-19 lockdown.* Both women are speechless because the rules are not supporting them. If they take action, they have to face the consequences: having more physical or mental violence and being treated as criminals in society. They are not passive and still looking for ways to fight for their rights even when they are forced to be silent. The incorporated poem is playing a role as their voice that has been taken away from them.
*https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/world/coronavirus-domestic-violence.html
“And this is I
a woman alone
at the threshold of a cold season
at the beginning of understanding
the polluted existence of the earth
and the simple and sad pessimism of the sky
and the incapacity of these concrete hands.”
— Let Us Believe at the Beginning of the Cold Season" by Forough Farokhzad