ABOUT THE SERIES

Identity and existentialism are strong themes running throughout Diana Lui’s photographs. Black and white photographs from The Essential Veil series feature different Moroccan women. Some are stark in their simplicity and plain garb, yet others regal looking with the women poised and doll-like in their wedding refinery. Despite their differences, all project an aura of strength and solitary calmness.

Uprooted and sent abroad to study by her parents when she was 14, Lui’s questions on self, identity and the transient, nomadic nature of individuals played an important part in shaping many of her works. She was captivated by the representation of a veil, what it means culturally and socially to the Moroccan society. Another inspiration comes from the obsessional photographic work on veiled women in Morocco by French psychiatrist Gaëtan Gatian de Clérambault. It was through her artist residency in Morocco with the French Institute that she first created this series.

“It was also a time when the hijab and the burqa was very controversial in France. So of course I was extra aware of the women being veiled. But at the same time I felt very at home in Morocco because it was a bit like me when I was in Malaysia, like before when people were wearing their tudungs,” she explained. Several of the veiled garments were wedding outfits, resplendent in their fine embroidery. “I was fascinated by their wedding costumes because it was so elaborate. The woman, she can’t move. She actually becomes a decorative piece. They become a very symbolic, metaphoric representation.”

“Some of the women actually have a certain form of power,” continued Lui, “but they don’t exert it openly, they exert it behind their husbands”. Attempting to convey that form of power, it shines through the photographs as it shows each woman being in control of her own presence.

Adapted from Lyn Ong, Photo Feature: Behind the Veil.