Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Gift of Susan and Lewis Manilow.
2000.22
The video-installation Turbulent, presented in two parts projected simultaneously onto opposing walls, dramatically addresses the social segregation between men and women in Muslim culture, as well as the transcendent power of music. The laws of Islam forbid women to sing before a public audience. Here an opposing narrative is played out as a man sings a conventional love song (written by the mystic poet Rumi) before an audience of men, while the woman performs to an empty auditorium, using her voice soulfully in an act of rebellion, without breaking the rules.
