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Listen "Description of Woman in Leopard Print, 2019"
Episode Synopsis
Further explore the exhibition’s theme of semi-visibility through a slow-looking exercise related to this work.
Transcript
Narrator: This inkjet color photographic print by artist Farah Al Qasimi from 2019 is edition four of five. Around 2 1/2 feet wide and just over 3 feet tall, it is titled "Woman in Leopard Print." In a masterpiece of visual excess, clashing colors, and patterns, a woman wearing bold leopard print stands in front of a gigantic advertisement featuring manicured nails.
The woman faces away from the camera. She has light olive skin, brown eyes, and dark eyebrows. Her head and torso fill the frame, with her left shoulder twisted slightly so it is positioned at the center of the photograph. Her face, however, turns away, so only the silhouetted edge of her left cheek and chin are visible.
The fingers of her left hand are lightly grasping or are tucked into the edge of her scarf below her chin. She looks into the mirror of an open makeup compact held in the fingers of her right hand. It contains a small square of salmon-colored makeup below a square mirror. The mirror she looks into is angled so she looks out of the corner of her eye, gazing toward us. Her gaze captures the viewer’s attention despite the busy patterns and colors throughout the photograph.
She wears a bright leopard print hijab, a headscarf fully covering her hair and wrapping down around her neck and across her shoulders. The leopard print on her loose long-sleeve blouse matches that of her vibrant hijab; the pattern is filled with tightly grouped black spots in organic rounded shapes against a background of various shades of cream, tan, bright yellow, and orange. Her blouse is slightly more orange than the hijab, which has more yellow tones.
She stands in front of a large advertisement billboard which floods the background of the photograph. It is a close-up of hands with light skin and long French manicured nails in a square shape—the nail painted light pink and the tips painted white with silver glitter. One nail has a tiny 3-D embellishment of a pink-and-white flower.
Transcript
Narrator: This inkjet color photographic print by artist Farah Al Qasimi from 2019 is edition four of five. Around 2 1/2 feet wide and just over 3 feet tall, it is titled "Woman in Leopard Print." In a masterpiece of visual excess, clashing colors, and patterns, a woman wearing bold leopard print stands in front of a gigantic advertisement featuring manicured nails.
The woman faces away from the camera. She has light olive skin, brown eyes, and dark eyebrows. Her head and torso fill the frame, with her left shoulder twisted slightly so it is positioned at the center of the photograph. Her face, however, turns away, so only the silhouetted edge of her left cheek and chin are visible.
The fingers of her left hand are lightly grasping or are tucked into the edge of her scarf below her chin. She looks into the mirror of an open makeup compact held in the fingers of her right hand. It contains a small square of salmon-colored makeup below a square mirror. The mirror she looks into is angled so she looks out of the corner of her eye, gazing toward us. Her gaze captures the viewer’s attention despite the busy patterns and colors throughout the photograph.
She wears a bright leopard print hijab, a headscarf fully covering her hair and wrapping down around her neck and across her shoulders. The leopard print on her loose long-sleeve blouse matches that of her vibrant hijab; the pattern is filled with tightly grouped black spots in organic rounded shapes against a background of various shades of cream, tan, bright yellow, and orange. Her blouse is slightly more orange than the hijab, which has more yellow tones.
She stands in front of a large advertisement billboard which floods the background of the photograph. It is a close-up of hands with light skin and long French manicured nails in a square shape—the nail painted light pink and the tips painted white with silver glitter. One nail has a tiny 3-D embellishment of a pink-and-white flower.
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