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Collections

Toufic Beyhum
Untitled2016

Not on view
Color portrait photograph, chest-up view of a man in a gray textured leather hood topped with spotted and orange feathers, wearing a maroon robe with gold embroidery
Artist or Maker
Toufic Beyhum
Lebanon, born 1974, active United Kingdom and Namibia
Title
Untitled
Date Made
2016
Medium
Inkjet print
Dimensions
Primary support: 44 1/16 × 43 15/16 in. (111.92 × 111.6 cm)
Credit Line
Purchased with funds provided by David Knaus with additional funds provided by Art of the Middle East: CONTEMPORARY
Accession Number
M.2017.230.2
Classification
Photographs
Collecting Area
Art of the Middle East: Contemporary
Curatorial Notes

In his series "Burqa," photographer and documentary filmmaker Toufic Beyhum addresses both his own obsession with falconry, in particular falcon hoods, and the large photographic portraits of the Amirs and Sheikhs of the Persian Gulf states, which dominate the lobbies of all public buildings. Indeed, these three striking images (see M.2017.230.1https://collections.lacma.org/node/2257461">M.2017.230.1> and M.2017.230.3https://collections.lacma.org/node/2257459">M.2017.230.3>) of leather-hooded humans are meant to evoke the proud and unseeing leadership of the United Arab Emirates and adjacent lands as projected in their public portraits. Beyhum’s photographs can be read on other levels as well: the title "Burqa" is a reminder of how some Muslim women are so extensively covered that they can barely see, while the leather masks (custom-made for the artist in a London shop catering to leather fetishists) also conjure up notions of S+M bondage.

Toufic Beyhum was born in Beirut. He moved to London as a child when his family was forced to relocate on account of the Lebanese civil war; he nonetheless maintained close ties with the Middle East. Currently based in Namibia, Beyhum has exhibited his work in London, Berlin, and Dubai.

Copyright
© Toufic Beyhum, digital image © Toufic Beyhum