Mashrabiya
Painted aluminum
Ext: 350x233x120cm - Int: 233x78x97cm
2021

A mashrabiya is an architectural element characteristic of traditional Islamic architecture. It is a type of projecting, oriel window enclosed with wooden latticework, and they are typically located on the upper floors of a building. These structures capture and passively cool the air by streaming it into the building. Sometimes mashrabiyas are used as screens, separating rooms inside the house, or to adorn windows, allowing for a partial view outward, but restricting the view inward. This function was often used to provide privacy for women while still allowing them to see outside.

At MOCA Toronto, the intervention on the museum’s exterior wall consists of three wooden lattices that form an enclave extending into the projecting oriel window on the facade of the building. The work recalls an observation deck, one that visitors are invited to enter. As an enclosed space, it projects through the museum’s first-floor windows and becomes both a space from which to look out and a space from which to take a pause, to reflect inward. As viewers engage with the installation from either outside or inside the museum’s walls, some will become the observers, some the observed, but they cannot be both at once. The public becomes integral to the play of visibility and obscurity, and the dynamics of power associated with viewing especially within the space of the museum.

Photography:
Toni Hafkenscheid