Object As Narrative Zine 

An object is not only a repository of information such as culture, history, a legacy of design, branding or Western civilisation but holds stories and narrative that make that piece individual, or special to someone.

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I chose to use my Arabic Dancing (belly dancing) had hat an a Turkish exchange student bought for me when taking a trip home for his mothers birthday, it came with a white waistcoat and trousers which were embellished with sequins forming flowers and patterns. This hat was made of light blue beads with long dangling strings of this colour that hang down and round the head each one finished with a gold bead on the end, and five on the very top. I received this costume when I was six and had always captured my imagination as child sparking thoughts of Aladdin, Asia, belly dancing, glamour and felt very ‘other’. The hat also often sparked thoughts of a jellyfish.

 

For me the personal narrative is so strong, as it sparked my imagination as child so vividly and I was always fascinated with the culture with the culture these exchange students and the items they’d bring. 

 

When considering the collage workshop I wanted to capture the voyeuristic nature of my object as an Arabic Dancing which embodies eroticism, the male gaze and fundamentally something that is ‘other’ and exotic. I also wanted to link perhaps the more traditional side of Arabic Culture, the jewellery and accent artefacts.

 

I felt that an erotic thing such as belly dancing offers a man an escape, such as our modern day stripe club, it’s an illusion not reality and tantalise on something they cannot have nor touch. This plants a seed within the voyeurs’ head, taking them away mentally from their mundane lives, the scenes they see daily. Such as the ‘shitty’ corner shop or their ‘1998 Citroen’, they are no longer themselves but a glamourised version of the Western man, a masculine triumph in that moment, with power as the alpha gender paying the other to loss their dignity.