Mélika Hashemi
Performing Shades of Green
Abstract
鈥淧erforming Shades of Green鈥 features visibly Muslim women artists activating materials evoking the interface鈥攏amely the green screen and (spiritual) window screen鈥攔emediating their experiences through performance. Featured artists include: Sara Gulamali, Maria Mahfooz, Farah Al Qasimi, Faisa Omer, Hanifa Haris, Raheleh (Minoosh) Zomorodinia, Leila Fatemi, Habiba El-Sayed and Nemah Hassan (Nemahsis).
These fabrics are given meaning beyond themselves, acting as shades of green鈥攁s portals. For Gulamali, Mahfooz, and Al Qasimi, the hijab is an identity that transforms one鈥檚 body; just as the green screen transforms a surface into a space when projected onto.1 Although not green in colour, the materials donned in the works of Omer and Haris transport the subject to another reality. With the camera as their only witness and locations undisclosed, Zomorodinia and Fatemi move off the grid and subvert the viewer鈥檚 gaze through their own lens and gestures. While remaining seated, El-Sayed and Nemahsis allow the crumbling and covered furniture from which they perform to engage with their respective viewers on their own behalf.
Keywords: Green screen; hijab; performance; new media art; contemporary Islamic art
The Green Screen as Portal
Multidisciplinary artist Umber Majeed offers that 鈥淸The] green screen interface is used as a narrative tool, projection space, and mode of spirituality.鈥2 As a visual language, the postnet green screen has the potential to speak back to the stereotypes featured artists similarly fall subject to when wearing the hijab (veil). The green screen thus becomes a site for performing obfuscation; a place where desires for openness are at odds with the backdrop of 9.11.01 against which these artists have been subject to for most of their lives.3
Sara Gulamali鈥檚 performance and video works The Green Walk (see Figure 1) and Can you see me still? (see Figure 2) serve as a great entry point into understanding green screen technology as a metaphor for the invisible yet hypervisible day-to-day experiences of the visibly-Muslim woman. The notion of 鈥榦therness鈥 here is a 鈥渘omadic space that can become anything or transport you anywhere.鈥4 For Gulamali, the green screen is not a tool, but a material she performs in to connect the omnipresent screen with the semantically complex material practice of the hijab.5
Through digital devices users extend themselves to (re)connect with the virtual, infinite space. Similarly, Gulamali uses the green screen to represent the infinite experiences of the in-between. In donning the green screen similar to a full-length veil when performing, the artist does not enclose the infinite-ness of her identity within the physical knots that make up the fabric itself, or their digital pixel counterparts when chroma keying. In fact, Gulamali uses the green screen as an interface for infinity: by superimposing the material (fabric) onto the virtual (experiences), the artist uses the screen (loom and computer) as a window to demystifying distance and translating diasporic imagery.
Another artist who uses a similar approach to interrogate ideas of representation and constructions of the self, is Maria Mahfooz. Mahfooz鈥檚 narrative form, through character animation and chroma keying [green screen], shows herself鈥撯揳 Pakistani-British Muslim woman鈥撯揳s she goes about her everyday life. In Pa-ki-stani Girls, a collaboration with Sara Gulamali, both artists display material aspects of the burkini, relying on digital means to create their own narratives, and the realm of the internet to circulate them (see Figures 3鈥4).6
Mahfooz鈥檚 navigation as a third culture kid鈥撯揵oth URL and IRL鈥撯搃s marked by her sense of humour. The artist uses green screen technology as a playground for mutual connection by way of absurdity, the uncanny, and satire. In her work, feminism and humour go hand-in-hand: criticism is essential to both, and although they are firm, they are fluid, and their presence doesn鈥檛 negate the subject: Mahfooz, herself.7 In this way, the artist does not flatten her experiences nor does she create a gap she cannot fill. In fact, she successfully navigates the blurry boundaries between relatable and non-relatable; acceptable and unacceptable, and popular and unpopular.8 In other words, she uses humour to facilitate a connection between herself and her audience, while allowing a gateway into social criticism.
Also using the uncanny to explore the invisible is Emirati-American photographer, Farah Al Qasimi. Through performance, photography and video, the artist offers a complex approach to portraiture wherein visibility doesn鈥檛 necessarily guarantee direct access to her subject. In her series It鈥檚 Not Easy Being Seen, Al Qasimi explores the invisible labour performed by women in the cycle of creation and consumption (see Figures 5鈥7). The photographer prompts critical reflection by way of mutual connection between her subjects and her viewers: Masked physically with anonymity (i.e., green gloves and face coverings), the former embodies otherness by asking what feelings are evoked in the latter [to be individuals from marginalised communities] especially when navigating spaces that aren鈥檛 always designed with them in mind.
Playing with Light: Transporting Subjects to Another Reality
Reclamation through Projection and Compassion
This same visible tangibility is offered by second-generation Somali-Canadian photographer Faisa Omer in her Reclaiming Public Space portrait series for the CBC; wherein she projects images of public spaces in Edmonton directly onto the subjects [Somali-Canadian girls and women] from whom these very spaces were taken away following a string of attacks in 2021.9 For Edmonton community organiser Hannan Mohamud, 鈥渢he uptick in violence can be directly linked to white supremacist rhetoric spewed鈥攐r complacently ignored鈥攂y politicians,鈥 especially when following up traumatic events with 鈥榠t鈥檚 not so black and white.鈥10 On the choice of medium for Faisa Omer in relation to history and Blackness to the issue of visibility, Su鈥檃d Abdul Khabeer writes:
鈥淭he racial logic of white supremacy means that to be Black is to never be unmarked, but to always be seen. Even in the moments where Black people are marginalized, we are not invisible, our marginalization is the consequence of our visibility. The white gaze evaluates, scrutinizes, and lusts after Blackness, marking it as the place where what it means to be human, 鈥渃ivilized,鈥 intelligent, etc., is determined. And as a result, Black people, and all they do, become hypervisible.鈥11
Seemingly mundane places (e.g., Public transit, the parking lot of a mall, a transit hub, an intersection) are associated with feelings of fear, coupled with the politics of surveillance. What these women encounter on a daily basis is like 鈥榳alking on eggshells鈥, which, in effect, proves the d茅rive as a privileged practice12 when living 鈥渁n existence marred by the constant possibility of anti-Black, Islamophobic and gender-based violence.鈥13 Omer juxtaposes light (projection) and dark (Black skin), and in wearing these spaces projected onto them like a corporeal skin, her subjects reclaim their right to exist and their right to public space (see Figures 8鈥10).
Art is energy: A powerful encounter is energy that transfers (from the encounter鈥檚 boundary of time/place) and transforms (evoking awareness and change in self and society) while being transferred (from the work to the viewer) and transformed (from a personal experience into a social discussion). In a way, that energy is potential in translation; and a powerful encounter is often unforeseen and rooted in difficulty.14 Omer鈥檚 portrait series is a combination of process and product; interpretation and positionality in relation to the story being told. While she鈥檚 taking the photo, her subjects share their story.15 There is an exchange; a pedagogy of compassion: Omer pulls from her own personal experiences, as well as those of her Somali and hijabi subjects, to 鈥渟how it can also be filled with laughter and the joys of Black Muslim sisterhood.鈥16
Revelation and Transformation through Reflection
The jumbo sequin fabric used by creative director and photographer, Hanifa Haris, in Mermaids Maghrib, Saath Samandar deflects through reflection: the multifacetedness of identity and ritual through the hijab is remediated with every sequin absorbing its own fragment of the surrounding environment (see Figures 11鈥13).
鈥淚 get my identity from you, and you get your identity from me; which means the emphasis is on the social plenitude rather than the individualistic paucity of identity.鈥濃 Mireya Folch-Serra, Geography, Diaspora and the Art of Dialogism in At the Far Edge of Words.17
The body holds the past, present and future at once: it is a virtual, sacred place. As we live to feel and tell, there is an unfolding or de-materializing where parts of ourselves reveal themselves through sound, movement, and breath. As we navigate through life, these revelations become transformations. Likewise, 膩y茅n茅-k膩r墨 (mirror mosaics) do the same: while they are assembled to form beautiful patterns as a collective, each tile tells its own story, reflecting a unique fragment of the whole image. Therefore, tile by tile, the 膩y茅n茅-k膩r墨 that embellishes the interiors of shrines across Central Asia provide us with a beautiful analogy for telling and hearing stories, respectively and collectively.
The title of the photographic series itself provides a rich analogy for tackling the complexity of identity: 鈥淢ermaids鈥 evokes hybridity; as both and neither, and the transliteration of the Urdu phrasing 鈥淪aath Samandar鈥 as opposed to offering its translation, reasserts that identity is not something to be 鈥榚xplained鈥 but rather 鈥榰nderstood.鈥18 Moreover, the cyclicality of [performing] rituals is evoked in the background and title (鈥淢aghrib鈥), where the day is coming to a close, only to begin again the next.
Off the Grid: Subverting the Gaze
Iranian-American interdisciplinary artist Raheleh (Minoosh) Zomorodinia, completely covered by an emergency blanket, and allowing the wind to caress her figure, engages her body and imagination in a durational performance of resistance. Through her vulnerability-bravery approach,19 this material object speaks to the veil鈥檚 function in tangibly symbolising religion in everyday life and its role in the performative process of identity formation.20 The artist stands there, unwavering. This very fabric has also acted as a 鈥榤ediator鈥 among her many collaborations with other artists of different identities; cultures, genders, and so on.21 One such example is the collaborative walk series with Astrid Kaemmerling: RitualWalk (2018), CloudWalk (2018) and The Body Walk (2019).
In her Sensation series (see Figures 14鈥17) an emergency blanket is held up against the wind by Zomorodinia herself, rendering visible her struggles with the [invisible] wind that caresses her form.22
The tangibility through her poetic refusal offers us an insight into the hypervisible consequences of Islamophobia in North America, yet the invisible measures taken to resolve and prevent them.23
For artist Leila Fatemi, however, the personal is not political. While she tries to rid the political landscape from her sublime landscapes,24 the politics of being a second-generation Muslim-Iranian and donning a ch膩dor (full-body-length fabric) on a d茅rive25 remain present in Fatemi鈥檚 The Wandering Veil series (see Figures 18鈥21). Through anonymity鈥撯揵y appearing as a white dot in these pristine landscapes evocative of the Windows XP Bliss wallpaper鈥撯揊atemi鈥檚 series unintentionally reminds us that in the current political landscape of Canada, the hyper-visible veil is more like a cluster of white pixels or a glitch, disrupting the compositional flow of socially and technologically constructed nature images, saturated and in full HD.26
Despite this analysis, Fatemi succeeds at creating a private space for the figure; free from the viewer鈥檚 gaze, inviting us to project ourselves within each landscape. By plucking the veil out of its socio-political context, and immersing it into nature, the artist offers us a glimpse into the virtual space which she enters while she wanders in her contemplative state. In this way, the materiality of the white ch膩dor donned by Fatemi is 鈥渞elevant to religious practices in its digital mediation too.鈥27 Thus, through this work, we are reminded that we aren鈥檛 viewers of wallpaper landscapes at all, but rather, brief visitors of the artist鈥檚 inner reality.
Distance and Difficulty: Encountering the Self and Other
In both Nemahsis and El-Sayed鈥檚 performances, the audience is let in on the encounter through what director, producer, and dramaturge Jenny Salisbury calls a 鈥減orous fourth wall鈥.28 From the covered furniture on which she sings in her debut single music video, Nemahsis literally holds a mirror to the viewer so that they may encounter themselves through the 鈥渙therness of knowledge鈥 (see Figure 23).29 In other words, she provokes affects of guilt and shame in viewers who may share commonalities with the brand that ignored her request to not be their 鈥渢oken hijabi girl鈥 thereby using her image without her consent, and perpetuating that same harm unto others like the singer.30 Through the camera moving out and the furniture remaining covered until the very end, we are reminded of our boundaries as outsiders, and that the distance between the performing body and the viewing body is useful (see Figure 22).31 Extending this analogy even further, the large window (also covered) behind Nemahsis may represent the 鈥榳indow of tolerance鈥 [emotional capacity] beyond which the singer was pushed in harmful encounters such as the one described earlier, providing the context for her debut single What if I took it off for you?
Likewise, movement and the object in Destruction of a Chaise Longue facilitate the relationship between El-Sayed herself and her audience for this durational performance (see Figures 24鈥25). A strong pause where her fully-covered body freezes like a statue, between poses of ridiculous odalisque paintings, accompanied by the sound of wet clay breaking and falling onto the ground, can unsettle the white male [gaze]; while inviting members of her audience to bear witness to her labouring and destruction for her own utopia.32 In pastiching the reclining nude through projection and performance, El-Sayed multiplies what is removed, pulling us in towards her.
鈥淲hen the body becomes an object, you better be ready for it to take up space.鈥
鈥 Habiba El-Sayed
In both cases, the screen functions as both distancing and uniting barriers: while they allow for us to connect, they also separate us from each other and even ourselves (i.e. dis-Orienting the gaze). Playing on the concept of the mashrabiya (spiritual window screen) 鈥渨herein women and families could gather and 鈥榮ee without being seen,鈥欌33 Nemahsis and El-Sayed, thus, consider how isolation (performing alone) can animate societal or historical shifts by focusing on how we look versus what we see.
Conclusion
The experiences of a visibly Muslim woman in the West form a ritual that (re)define and are (re)defined by one鈥檚 own body and movements.34 Within certain contexts, performing the everyday can actually foreground the obscurity of mundane acts; rendering the body that performs them hypervisible and thus subject to [further] marginalisation.35
Featured artists in this analysis activate materials and fabrics evoking the interface to remediate their experiences through performance. The green screen is a metaphor for transforming the Islamophobic sentiments and ideologies others project onto them, and, in transporting the subject to an empowered reality; they reclaim their voices, bodies, movement and place in the world. This reclamation cannot happen without subversion, specifically in works where the artists render their locations anonymous and take their movements and the gaze into their own hands. And, sometimes, they leave that responsibility entirely up to the props in their performances to carry out this functionality for them while they perform.
Notes
1. On using ablution to explore purity and the authenticity of ritual practice, artist Ferwa Ibrahim offers that 鈥渞eligious rituals become part of the body without much thought gone into them.鈥
2. Umber Majeed, 鈥淚n the Name of Hypersurface of the Present鈥 (Artist Statement) (Online: Artist Website, 2018),
3. Ahmed Afzal, Mujahid Osman, & Hadeth Rassol (2021, May 7). Critical Muslim Studies [panel discussion]. AAS Digital Dialogues, Online.
4. Burrard Arts Foundation, 鈥淪ara Gualamali: 馃挌 [green heart emoji]鈥 (Curatorial Statement) (Online: Burrard Arts Foundation, 2022),
5. Evolvi, The Veil and its Materiality: Muslim Women鈥檚 Digital Narratives about the Burkini Ban, 3.
7. Salisbury, Political Acts and Public Voices: Paying Time and Attention to The Public Servant, 74.
8. Feminism and humour give birth to women鈥檚 comedy; a pop culture genre.
9. Melissa Fundira, 鈥淩eclaiming public space,鈥 CBC 鈥 Black on the Prairies, January 24, 2022,
11. Su鈥檃d Abdul Khabeer, 鈥淲here is Blackness in Islamic Art?鈥 BlackFlash, March 31, 2022,
12. Stephanie Springgay and Sarah E. Truman, Walking Methodologies in a More-Than-Human World: WalkingLab (New York: Routledge, 2018), 95. Springgay defines the d茅rive as an aimless or unplanned drifting through [urban] space. Their associations or habits related to a place are disrupted, directing their attention instead to its other [psychogeographic] details.
14. Simon, A shock to thought: Curatorial judgement and the public exhibition of 鈥榙ifficult knowledge鈥, 432鈥449. Simon describes the 鈥榙ifficulty鈥 embedded in a work as defined by the affect (e.g. anger, horror, disgust, shame, guilt) it provokes in the viewer.
15. Timiro Mohamed, 鈥淭he Art of the Hustle: How Photographer Faisa Omer is Reclaiming Beauty Standards and Breaking Barrier Through Storytelling,鈥 BlackFlash, February 17, 2022,
17. Jamelie Hassan; Melanie Townsend, and Scott Watson, Jamelie Hassan: At the Far Edge of Words (Museum London; Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, 2009), 61.
19. Gray and Kontos, An Aesthetic of Relationality: Embodiment, Imagination, and the Necessity of Playing the Fool in Research-Informed Theater, 440鈥452.
20. Emma Tarlo, Multicultural Muslim Fashions (London: V&A Publications, 2010).
22. Raheleh (Minoosh) Zomorodinia, 鈥淪ensation III鈥 (Artist Statement) (Online: Vimeo, 2016),
23. Miriam Katawazi, 鈥溾楬ow many deaths need to happen?鈥: Canada has a troubling anti-Muslim hate problem,鈥 CTV News, June 18, 2021,
24. Leila Fatemi, 鈥淭he Wandering Veil鈥 (Artist Statement) (Online: Artist Website, 2013鈥 ),
26. Marjin Bril, 鈥淲hen I look through my browser window I can feel the fresh air鈥 (February 25, 2022). This is contextualised in the manuscript as a metaphor for short-term approaches to problem-solving or 鈥榖and-aid鈥 solutions to complex, ongoing issues. An example is diversity and inclusion in the workspace overwhelmingly understood as a quota or token. These unsustainable approaches prove that our hypervisibility will never allow for us to fully integrate within the Canadian political landscape: we are reminded that this is a gap that has not yet been filled with meaningful and productive collaboration towards problem-solving.
27. Peterson, Beyond Fashion Tips and Hijab Tutorials: The Aesthetic Style of Islamic Lifestyle Videos.
30. Natalie Harmsen, 鈥淧remiere: Nemahsis Drops Her Impassioned First Single, 鈥渨hat if I took it off for you?鈥濃 (June 23, 2021). Complex Canada.
32. Sanaa Humayun, 鈥淕rief, Tenderness, and Kinship: The Work of Habiba El-Sayed,鈥 BlackFlash, February 4, 2022,
33. Mitra Fakhrashrafi, Leila Fatemi: Fa莽ade through the Fa莽ade (Toronto: Xpace Cultural Centre, 2020).
34. Kursat Ozenc, 鈥淚ntroducing Ritual Design: meaning, purpose, and behaviour change,鈥 Medium, April 2, 2016,
35. Habiba El-Sayed, in conversation with M.C. Baumstark, offers that 鈥渋t seems like a performance of labour and values.鈥 Fusion Magazine, 4(1); 24.
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Biography
M茅lika Hashemi is an Artist-Researcher and Courseware Developer based in Kitchener, Ontario. Using art and emerging technologies, she finds ways to creatively renew intersectionality and empowerment beyond screens and institutional walls. M茅lika is the course author of Digital Spirituality and co-author of the book, O Lone Traveller: Rehearsing Self-Advocacy at the Border. Her research engages with critical arts pedagogies and visual discourse analyses, particularly within New Media art and newer -isms put forth by South Asian, Southwest Asian and North African (SASWANA) diaspora with proximity to Islam.
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