In Milan a photographic exhibition by Heliya Haq dedicated to women's freedom

From 16 to 29 July at Studio Zecchillo the exhibition of the photographer Heliya Haq Crisalide: from plot to revelation arrives.

The exhibition

The exhibition develops starting from Heliya Haq's research on education and destruction of the identity of many women in the Middle East and especially in the Islamic world. The chrysalis is the cocoon in which the metamorphosis from the caterpillar to the butterfly takes place, it is often golden in appearance hence its name “chrysalis”, from the radicegrecachrysos, ie golden. It is like a golden cage that the butterfly breaks into a new life. In these shots, Heliya Haq shows the identity of the woman in her phase of formation and metamorphosis, in the 'cocoon' of these fabrics her identity will come to free itself, which is in part already attracted to the light and is freeing itself from these veils that prevent them from coming out and flying away, however not all caterpillars will become butterflies. As is known, the most important caterpillar of all, the silkworm, of very precious and inestimable value in the early modern age, is still used today to produce silk. However, the worm can only produce silk before its transformation into a moth, and breaking the cocoon ruins the silk produced. For this reason, in sericulture, silkworms are killed, before metamorphosis, so as to be able to use their precious product.

The situation of women in today's societies

Haq with this title relates the situation of women in many societies today, where she is imprisoned in a transparent chrysalis, and is not always allowed to free herself and soar. Her photographs are the result of the correlation between light and shadow, fabric and body. The body is simultaneously covered and uncovered by the fabric, and this struggle is also resumed in the dualism of light and shadow. The woman looks at the light and is attracted by it, but she is completely enveloped in darkness, which also partly makes up her body.

This extremely evocative representation is intended to be a reminder of the identity of the woman generally understood , who often has to struggle to assert her identity, and must try to open this transparent cage in order to finally be able to fly away towards the window or cross the door of light.The darkness that envelops the woman can represent the lack of identity that is a phenomenon common in many Islamic countries. “Very often, in fact, women cannot fail to be associated with men and are known as 'the daughter of' and later 'the wife of', it is very difficult for them to develop a personal identity away from the name of a man,” he explains. Haq. Crisalide shows two photographs of The Dreamer (2019), still never exhibited in the exhibition, with the addition of a shot, Crisalide (2018), which modifies the narrative of what was represented in The Dreamer, where the figure of the woman revolved around the research marked by hope and dream.

The project

This photographic project, Crisalide, fits perfectly into the chain of previously published works, such as Identity: Protest Work (2015), where the artist developed some photographs of protest against the use of acid, which is often the protagonist of violence against women and which steals their identity by erasing their facial and body features. The same is explored from another point of view in Acidized Faces: Protest Work (2016), and also in the previous The Glory of Being a Woman (2017) photography is used to stop a few moments of a dance like a fight between a woman and his alter-ego, a chador and a bust. All the power of black and white photography is unleashed in these iconic shots. Also in the series Me, Myself and I (2018) more than the visible body, it is the movement that is the protagonist. All the photographs were taken using an optical bench and the photo is composed of the sum of the movements of the sensor and Heliya: the curves generated by the machine are perfect because they were created by the relationship between time and space while Heliya performed a fluid and constant movement. . None of these photographs are manipulated, and they all show what has been there over time but which we cannot see, generating a real – objective I would dare to say – visual memory of the movement. Haq's work is meant to be a push to help change the face of society for the better. The use of black and white does not correspond, like its aesthetics, to any fashion of the moment, but are the symbols of dualism, in which gray is not conceived and light and shadow end up in one. other