Queering Islamic Aesthetics: Embodied Aesthetics and Queer Phenomenology

This work explores the collision of two seemingly disparate interests: the notion of queering, and Islamic Aesthetics. By critically engaging tropes from Islamic aesthetics and culture (i.e. architectural geometry, crocheting, carpets, and the Ezan – the Islamic call to prayer), and combining these with abstracted and figurative representations of the body, the work produced for this MFA thesis suggests the forbidden nature of queer desire and its relationship to Islamic culture and spirituality. Employing video installation, sound, drawing, painting, Ebru and sculpture, Queering Islamic Aesthetics attempts to capture the complex and nuanced negotiations involved in the embodied experience of transcultural queerness.