If you are looking for a place where untainted, artistic purity of mind and beauty can be found, Variant Space is the place. Variant Space is a platform for Muslim women artists to represent themselves and share their stories. Variant Space was created by Nasreen Shaikh Jamal Al-Lail as a place where Muslim women can express their experiences artistically.
In a world where abstractions and untrue representations permeate everything, the artists at Variant Space are sharing collectively their streams of consciousness through their chosen artistic mode.
The Muslim women Artists at Variant Space partake in their actual lived experience as opposed to asking them to represent universally perceived ‘realness’; doing so changes the artistic tone – an essential concept of the musicality of Art – making it abrupt and, therefore, disingenuous.
“We are certain that when individuals are given an autonomous space devoid of caricatures, coercive influence, generalizations and stereotypes, the essence of genuine representation will be preserved.”
Variant Space is, therefore, a celebratory archive for Muslim women artists who have suffered under the various broad stroke judgments and proclamations by experts about who they are.
Related: Hoda Katebi created JooJoo Azad to challenge Media representation of Hijab-wearing, Muslim Women.
Founded in 2014 by Nasreen Shaikh Jamal Al Lail. Nasreen’s background in Photography and Photographic Studies, plus her focus on themes of self-identity and the concept of ‘flux’ in a globalized world gives the precise lens for understanding and establishing Variant Space. You’ll always find ideas of culture, gender, religion and politics interlaced in her work.
Variant Space is a much-needed platform today for going beyond simple categorizations that limit artists and, ultimately, Muslim women from speaking for themselves.
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