KABA

This video installation addresses the issue of spatial separations between sexes in religious societies. It illuminates the oppressive and liberating aspects of spatial separations. This triangular structure invites people to circle around it to see all sides. Body movements of the audience and their interactions with this installation reference the act of Haj pilgrimage, which requires Muslims to go around Kabba
(god's house) seven times.
This structure is seven feet tall and seven feet wide. Each angle has a different size. A video of the actual fabric that separates women and men in a mosque in Iran is projected on the widest side of this triangle. On the second widest side a video of men praying in a mosque was projected. This video was shot from a voyeur perspective seeing into the men's section from behind. On the smallest side, a video of a woman dancing in a mosque at the noon prayer was projected. A wall and a veil was protecting this woman in a country that hijab is mandatory and women cannot dance in public.

Photos by Lauren Sudbrink