Azzah Sultan

February 2020
INVITATIONAL EXHIBITION
Azzah Sultan

Artist Statement
I use my own personal experiences of being a brown Muslim woman and highlight stereotypes ingrained within my own community through installation strategies, my body of work debunks cultural myths created by society and explores stigmas related to my identity. I aim to give authority to myself in my work by being the performer, the author and the subject, I play on this idea of the self by also exploring my relationship with my parents, language and my nationality. Being an immigrant in a country can really shape and form the way you live your life. You struggle to identify yourself whether you are a part of your environment or still considered an outsider. The traditions and cultural practice that come from the homeland may not be the norm to follow in where one has chosen to live in. Traditional garments, food and practices are what I am currently interested in exploring within my artistic practice. I want to be able to leave my art in a space where the viewers get an understanding of the struggles that Muslims, women of color and immigrants face in contrast to how we are categorized and stigmatized in the media and history.

Home Sweet Home Year: 2016 Medium: Hijabs Size: 70 inches x 70 inches To preserve a sense of safety and acceptance, today’s American Muslims feel compelled to hide their faith and religiosity. “Home Sweet Home” is an attempt to communicate this pain with those outside the Muslim community, and to have them understand that although America may be “the land of the free,” it has not been welcoming to us. We Muslims are told that in order to be American, we must be secular. We are told that Islamic values don't coincide with American values. We fear association with the term “religious extremist,” so we water down our beliefs and alter our appearance to present ourselves as less overtly religious. I am interested in transforming negative stereotypes about Muslims into creative solutions that counter false beliefs. “Home Sweet Home” is a testimony to our various backgrounds, coinciding with a common idea of what it means to be both Muslim and American.

Radical Media Year: 2016 Medium: Video "Radical Media" is a compilation of collected clips of various news correspondents the media using words that often label Islam and used as a way to create a negative impact on the faith, a type of subliminal messaging. (played on a loop) Video can be viewed here: https://vimeo.com/162619155

Year: 2019 Medium: Video 3D scan of my face Video can be viewed here: https://vimeo.com/343897965

Muslimah Media Watch Year: 2016 Medium: Video The media is a very interesting platform where facts and fiction often converge. it is hard listening to the news now as certain truths are talked about and others ignored. The media here in the West has cultural bias. There is very little attention to Muslims who are speaking out and condemning terrorism, Muslim women are hardly given the platform to talk about the general misconceptions that the West believes in terms of their faith and culture background. For my piece “Muslimah Media Watch” I conducted a conference call with five other Muslim women situated in Brussels (Belgium), the Ajman (United Arab Emirates), Paris (France), Bangalore (India) and Ramallah (Palestine). I play the role of an anchor woman, interviewing these women as they share their stories and issues that affect their Muslim identity. The full video can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

Promo (from Perfectly Blushed Series) Year: 2019 Medium: Video Part of the Perfectly Blushed series. Women of color are often encouraged to use methods of skin bleaching – as it promises them a future where they can succeed in their careers, love life and any obstacles that they face. The removal of a dark skin tone is akin to the removal of one’s history and past. Perfectly Blushed is an installation piece that examines the way marketing works to sell this fantasy. The promises of reinventing a woman’s life through skin bleaching and the advertising techniques used to promote these products are heavily known within communities of color. The South East Asian community relationship with these products is what I am specifically focusing on. My intention is to have the audience question what it means to change your skin tone: to assimilate yourself towards imposed beauty trends that stem from the antecedents of white supremacy and a long history of colonialism. Video can be seen here: https://vimeo.com/343898817

Pink & Lovely (from the Perfectly Blu shed Series) Dimensions: 6 x 6 foot Year: 2019 Medium: oil on canvas

Perfectly Blushed Counter (from the Perfectly Blushed Series) Year: 2019 Medium: Display boxes on plexi display counter

Anak Mami (series of 20 images) Year: 2018-2019 Medium: garments from both my mother and father “Anak Mami” is an exploration of my cultural identity, looking at my Malaysian background and how it relates to my Malay, Indian and Pakistani bloodline. The word Mamak is a term referring to the Indian Muslims who migrated from mostly South India to Malaysia. The garments incorporated in this work are pieces borrowed from my mother and father, with Indian and Malay jewellery borrowed from my mother. These mixing of patterns bring light to my relationship with the cultures I grew up with. Malaysia is a diverse community of Malays, Indians and Chinese, the intersectionality of these races is what makes up the community but coming from a mixed background you are often categorized as one or the other. Anak Mami is a project that brings light to my mixed background, the pivotal influences of Mamaks in Malaysian society and is a platform to represent women who share the same skin tone and features as mine. To see more images from this series: http://azzahsultanstudio.com/Work/Anak-Mami-series

Azzah Sultan received her BFA from Parsons School of Design and is currently working towards an MFA at Washington State University. She was born in Abu Dhabi and is a Malaysian native who grew up in Malaysia, Saudi, Finland, Bahrain and has spent six years living in America working on her artistic practice. She has had her art exhibited in The New School, Parsons Paris Gallery, S.A.D. Gallery, The Bushwick Collective, BUFU Studios, The Ely Center, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, Blackfish Gallery, Chase Gallery, Terrain 12, KMAC Gallery and was as well a panelist for Muslim Women Reclaim Their Identities at Amherst College, MA. While living in New York she was a program coordinator at Triangle Arts Association and an artist assistant for Artist of Color Block. Before starting her masters she worked at the Islamic Art Museum as a graphic designer. Her work strives to transcend the fallacy that Muslim women like herself are oppressed by the nature of their religious customs. Her work also speaks on the issues pertaining to finding her identity through culture and immigration.

For inquiries contact the artists directly:
Azzah Sultan
Instagram: @sitisultanwebsite: http://azzahsultanstudio.com/

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