JALI

2018

Dana Awartani’s Jalis are a prelude to her immersive installation Listen to my Words, which consists of hand embroidered silk Jalis (screens) and an audible element of women reciting poetry.

The use of geometric layered panels references a Mughal style of the ‘mashrabiya’, as well as a leading female figure, Nourjehan, who has inspired the piece. Fabled to have whispered commands into her husband the emperor’s ears, she played a pivotal yet hidden role in governance. The Mashrabiya, typically used in architectural structures to shield and protect women from the male gaze, is here reinvented by layering three white panels creating a larger, wholistic design. The color white references a Jali-typically made using stone or white marble, as well as serves to enhance the essential interplay of light on the physical and metaphorical depths of the piece.

Jali seeks to both lift a veil on a cast of forgotten radical female poets ranging from pre-Islamic times to the 12th century, as well as examines and questions the duality of public and private domains, the metaphor of light and shadow, and explores the spiritual Islamic qualities of zahir (outward dimension) and batin (inward dimension).

Front and back view of Jali 1, 2018, gouache on drafting film (3 layers), 120 x 84 cm. © Dana Awartani

Front and back view of Jali 2, 2018, gouache on drafting film (3 layers), 120 x 84 cm © Dana Awartani

Front and back view of Jali 3, 2018, gouache on drafting film (3 layers), 120 x 84 cm © Dana Awartani