Esma Kazal

Abstract

Iraq born, Auckland based artist Esma Kazal's practice finds her exorcising and exploring her complex, and at times conflicting, beliefs around gender, equality, sexuality and identity. Engaging her own body as subject in many of her works, Kazal experiments with the tension between revealing and covering, particularly of women's bodies. Makeup is a frequent muse; subverting its usual use, Kazal layers it upon herself, transforming her features into a muddied mass. Most recently, Kazal participated in A Different View: Artists Address Pornography in Auckland, New Zealand, a group exhibition addressing taboos in porn. Rather than employ nudity to convey her message, as might be expected in a show of this kind, Kazal posed fully covered in a sex shop, highlighting the contrast between Eastern and Western cultures, and their vastly opposite attitudes to the flesh.'