By Mark and Angela Walley, The Atlantic
In Pakistan, women are often excluded from mosques, says the artist Anila Quayyum Agha. In the entire time she lived in the country, Agha maybe went inside a mosque five times, and it was never to pray. "That was a public space that could have been a world of creativity for women, but they're not allowed to be in there culturally," she says in this short profile by Walley Films, commissioned by the Rice University Art Gallery. "Taking that world of creativity that was kept away from me, I'm using that to create this," she says of her new installation titled Intersections. It's a large wooden cube that's carved with Islamic designs inspired by the Alhambra palace in Spain. When lit from inside, it bathes the room in delicate shadows—a "mosque-like space," says Agha.
The installation runs until December 6, 2015, in the Rice University Art Gallery. More information about the artist can be found on her website.