Converging Territories #3 2004

Lalla Essaydi made "Converging Territories #3" as a photograph, but for me, it looks like a painting, with repeated marks that build a surface with subtle shifts and variations. It feels like something has emerged through layering, building, and covering. I imagine Essaydi composing this image, perhaps directing the models in her studio with careful attention to their placement, clothing, and the overall atmosphere. The Arabic calligraphy, which covers the figures and the space, is beautiful and complex, though, for many of us, unreadable. What secrets do they hold? Essaydi plays with the tension between visibility and concealment, identity and anonymity, and the push and pull between cultures and traditions. The neutral, earthy palette creates a sense of unity and harmony, enveloping the figures and their environment in a soft, diffused light. It makes me think of the work of painters like Agnes Martin, or even Cy Twombly, all artists who find ways to create a kind of all-overness, an environment where the eye can wander. In the end, artists are constantly in conversation, drawing inspiration from one another, across time, medium, and place.