A R C H I E F1 9 9 8  
16th
  Rummana Hussain
Is It What You Think?
  India 1998
Performance, 25:00
 
Where does she belong? Is she behind a veil? Have you defined her? Have you slotted her? The performance 'Is It What You Think?' questions the Muslim woman stereotype, projected by the media and by the West. Considering the wide geographic spread of Islam with vastly dissimilar practices and rituals, specially in details, is it possible to create an image of the universal Muslim woman? Therefore Hussain only asks questions, to which there can be no fixed answers. The performance is also about the translation of notions of war and love and how they become connected with the woman's body. It begins with the chanting of Sufi music which could be about a lover or God or both at the same time. She narrates a story about a woman who fought for the freedom of her country. These sounds are woven together with the sound of the loom and of chopping vegetables and then as the Sufi music continues she begins to read out questions from a book, as if she was chanting from a holy book. The questions are sometimes erotic. As Rummana Hussain chants, there are slides projected on her body, of newspaper images of Muslim women and of herself with a 'hijab' taking photos. When she finishes reading, she picks up the veil lying on the floor, folds it, places it carefully on the stool, takes off her vest, removes her prosthesis and walks out... Reacting to the political climate of India, Rummana Hussain gave up her earlier allegorical canvasses for a more challenging conceptual approach to art. The immediate trigger was the demolition of the historical Babri Mosque in the township of Ayodhya by a ramping squad of fundamentalists in 1993. This was a loss of innocence and a betrayal that was historical, national and deeply and individually personal.

– Johan Pijnappel

Rummana Hussain ° 1952, Bangalore (India)
Lives and works in Bombay (India)


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