The Lisa Sette Gallery represents contemporary artists Lalla Essaydi, whose photographic
work features subjects who are given a voice through their actions and the written word. In her new series, Les Femmes du Maroc, (the Women of Morocco), as in the Converging Territories work, Lalla Essaydi again uses Arabic calligraphy painted with henna to inform her classically staged environments and striking female sitters. With a delicate balance of text and image, Essaydi references the odalisque poses associated with Western Orientalism, a 19th Century movement that portrayed eastern society as exotic and sensual, as seen in the work of Ingres and Delacroix. Through her images of female strength and beauty, Essaydi locates her subject in a contemporary context that challenges the perception of life in the east. In Les Femmes du Maroc, Essaydi evokes the past, describes her own journey, and addresses the way place, language, and image effect perceptions of the self and culture.