Dalia Halwani

Titled ‘FICTIONALISING the ARABESQUE’, my project investigates how Arab and Islamic design motifs are appropriated in contemporary science fiction cinema to construct alien and surreal civilisations.

Examining how excessive ornamentation is used to represent cultural otherness and inferiority - echoing the visual strategy of 19th century Orientalist paintings - I decided I wanted to physicalise these opulent and hyperbolic Sci-Fi worlds that are scattered with Middle Eastern design motifs.

Through immersive installations that mimic fictional film sets, my work seeks to exaggerate the aesthetic dialogue that extracts these visual elements of their cultural lineage. Critiquing how fantasy and futurism continues to disguise these reductive representations of Middle Eastern culture, my work asks viewers to reconsider the politics behind cinematic world-building and the origins of its visual storytelling.