IMPORTANT: The Exhibition has been extended and still open beyond the date advertised above, click for more info.

What do you think when you see a Muslim woman?

What do you think of her headscarf, her veil, or her expression of her faith? Take a step back and look at the Muslim woman again at “An Introduction”, Variant Space’s upcoming exhibition this summer.

Variant Space is a groundbreaking collective of Muslim female artists, which aims to shatter misconceptions held about Muslim women, and more generally about Islam. By providing a platform, Variant Space helps Muslim female artists to showcase their talents and in doing so, to tell the world their authentic stories. The work of the Variant Space artists is a breath of fresh air as it highlights the true social fluidity and diversity among Muslim women, which is so often lost in the heated debate about their role and rights.

The aim of the upcoming exhibition is twofold. Firstly, the artists’ work will showcase the melting pot of Muslim women and highlight that even if they look the same or dress the same, even if they are from the same country and from similar backgrounds, each Muslim woman is a unique individual with a distinctive story of tell. The exhibition is ‘artistic politics’: it makes statements that touch issues that are important to the artists and in some cases, topics which are often sensitive or taboo but fundamental to guiding contemporary debates down better avenues.

Secondly, the exhibition hopes to recapture the debate about Muslim women by providing the public with a broader lens through which to consider her and her religion and by sparking more dynamic conversations between groups.

Since the launch of Variant Space in 2014, the collective has flourished and there are now 17 artists who participate in the collective. Also, Variant Space launched their podcast in March 2017 “New realities” which covers conversations between artist. As well as this exhibition, Variant Space will also participate (as it has done before) in Shubbak festival 2017.

“An Introduction” will be held at The Foundry, a centre for social justice that was the RIBA London Building of the Year 2015. Located in Vauxhall, the centre has state of the art meeting spaces, large and small and offers discounted rates to registered charities, CIC’s and social enterprises. The Exhibition is also supported by Equalities Work is a new charity that is delivering a range of social justice arts and education initiatives through The Foundry.