Advertising gets a Hijab
June 21, 2009
Even though no one knows who "Princess Hijab" really is, visitors to Paris will recognize her art immediately. Working under a cloak of darkness, armed with black spray paint and a permanent marker, the graffiti artist covers posters of sexy models with cloaks of their own: burqas.
Topmodel Kate Moss in a veil, actor Owen Wilson in a hijab - and suddenly, their shining smiles seem ironic. The phantom has struck again, on one of the city's most frequented subway stops: the Paris Opera.
Is it art? Or a religious statement?
The princess is a mystery, even for graffiti insiders. An internet search reveals a chaotic webpage with a strange manifesto. "Visual terrorism," "artistic jihad" and "revenge for a good cause" are some of the slogans the guerilla street artist uses. She says she wants to "hijabize" advertising, in the same vein as the anti-consumerist Adbuster movement that began in Canada in 1989.
But on her MySpace site, Princess Hijab seems to exude girl power. The black and white page drips with red, portraying a drawing of a young woman wearing a printed scarf and a pirate eye patch while dance music plays. The artist claims to be a 21-year-old girl, who is "disgusted."
"Jihad is her art"
But in a telephone interview, Princess Hijab did unveil herself a bit more.
"All of these terms - visual terrorism, jihad - they are all coded," she said. "Of course, they have a certain weight and an emotional importance, but I try to separate them from their context. For me, it is more of an attitude, a metaphor. And the 'noble cause' is to demand the right to a counterstatement from images in the public sphere."
"Princess Hijab" has been bombarding the internet and the walls of Paris, veiling poster girls and boys, since 2006. For her its not a matter of Islam, but rather of artistic self realization.
"The veil has plenty of different meanings: it can be religious or secular; it can form your identity or alienate it," the young artist said. "And gives me the opportunity to fight on several fronts, to remain hidden and create an alternative personality for myself. It sets me apart from other artists in France."
Offensive veils
She herself is not muslim, she said. And certainly not prude. Her "hijabized" women are presented with mini skirts, high heels and some even with guns - and opinion is divided over her work. On the one hand, Western critics regard Princess Hijab as too Islamic, too propagandistic. But Muslim critics complain that her "coverage" is only show - there's still too much skin revealed. However, the fact that the veil has a mere decorative function doesn't seem to bother fans nor critics.
"Those who are interested in my work are atheists, feminists and Muslims. I think that I have touched upon an issue here that does not need justificiation," Princess Hijab says. In the end, everybody has the freedom to interpret her activities whichever way they want. "I like the idea that things are not too neatly defined," she said.
"Princess Hijab" will continue to rely on the powers of ambiguity, keeping her identity and age a secret even as she takes part in her first exhibition, “The Seen and the Hidden: Dis_Covering the Veil,” at the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York (through August 29, 2009).
"'Princess Hijab' is an urban allegory that I have created myself. She's a matrix, a metamorphosis that an ordinary mortal can only dream of. It's a sphere reserved for gods and superheroes."
Author: Carmen Lünsmann /kj/ai
Editor: Kateri Jochum