In her monumental photographic series Giants (2007–10), Maïmouna Guerresi used family members and other nonprofessional models to create imaginary characters that morph dramatically into mystical, metaphysical beings whose human forms merge with architectural spaces and black voids. Here the statuesque figures of Rhokaya (see M.2016.1.2) and Akbar are robed in layers of brightly colored cloth, which seemingly surround empty cavities that contradict their corporeality; Guerresi has likened them to tectonic structures containing a body "as empty as an unknown universe." Their spiritualism and superhuman scale were inspired by the Muridiyya of Senegal, the Sufi order to which Guerresi belongs; their poses are drawn from Western art traditions but not their faces or intended meaning.
Guerresi is an Italian-born artist who converted to Islam, joining a Sufi community in Senegal in the early 1990s. Today she divides her time between Verona, Milan, and Dakar, working in photography, video, sculpture, and installation art. Her personal and professional background, and the strong emphasis she places on her faith and spiritual transformation as visualized through her art, makes Guerresi a natural fit within the genre of Islamic art today.
