Another Emerging: Locating the Islamo-Orientalised Female Other Navigating Anotherness in Contemporary Western Visual Culture

Few women artists from the Muslim world(s) who live and work in the diaspora can talk about the way they represent themselves and their artistic self-image without confronting the pre-existing ideas of their predominantly Western audiences. Neither are these women able to escape the historical and political narratives that surround them. My artistic practice is no exception to this – it is assumed, received, perceived and measured within a contemporary Western visual context.

This thesis investigates the historical and political contexts of women artists of the Muslim diaspora and argues that Orientalism, Colonialism and Islamophobia negatively impact our image, self-representation and artistic voice within contemporary arts and culture. The events following 9/11 both hindered and problematised this self-representation, pushing some women to self-Orientalise and self-Other, whereas others were pushed into silence. Highlighting this transition – from being imagined through the Orientalist and colonialist canon to using selfnarration – as significant for women artists of the Muslim diaspora, this thesis focuses on the potential to self-represent by claiming our own voice and image.

The nature and formation of this problem are examined in this thesis through analyses of key texts by historians and critics, exhibition histories, artists’ works, individual interviews and my own experience of 30 years as an artist, curator and educator in creative and cultural settings. This investigation locates and defines this phenomenon (a problematic palimpsest) as the ‘Islamo-Orientalised Female Other’ (IOFO) by creating a critical framework that captures the complexity of this issue. Thus, the following central questions arise: Can the IOFO artist speak? If so, how? This thesis then discusses the possibilities of voice through artistic practice by proposing ‘Anotherness’ as a strategy, through my own practice, to move forward.