By Tara Kyle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
CHELSEA — A Chelsea exhibit features a photograph by an Iranian-American artist of a woman clad in a bridal gown and ski mask with an American flag draped over her head like a hijab.
The photo is just one piece in "Barakat: The Gift," an exhibit confronting gaps in understanding between the Islamic world and the West as a debate rages nationally over a mosque planned near Ground Zero, inciting protests and incidents of racial hatred, including the recent stabbing of a Manhattan cabbie.
Bruce Barrack, a 56-year-old social worker from upstate New York, said he worried the image, shot by Sara Rahbar, could "feed into this Islamophobia" stemming from the controversy over the mosque.
"If somebody didn't understand that picture, they might interpret it negatively," he said of the piece, which is mounted at the Stefan Stux Gallery.
Arlene Mayerson, a California-based lawyer, interpreted the image as a critique of U.S. treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo.
"Its just beautiful visually. But it's frightening and disturbing," Mayerson said.
The show, which takes its title from the Arabic word for "blessing," will close on Sept. 11, the day after the Muslim holiday Eid ul-Fitr and the anniversary of the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks.
The exhibit's curator, Italian art critic Gaia Serena Simionati, hopes that this timing will send a message about the value of open minds.
"I think it's a benediction, a blessing, if the U.S. can start to have a dialogue again with Arab culture," said Simionati, who began traveling through the Middle East as a teenager.
The participants in "Barakat," who come from Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, Turkey, Senegal and Iran, tackle a range of topics in the exhibit through mediums that include photography, acrylic paint, video, sculpture and textile.
One artist, Muslim convert Maimouna Guerresi, created a sculpture consisting of many prayer mats stacked atop one another, to represent both the beauty she sees in her faith as well as the ways in which the religion can act as a barrier.
Egyptian artist Moataz Nasr, playing off his country’s tradition of sewing rugs following the death of a loved one, created a rug that features tanks, explosions and propaganda. The vibrantly colored triptych "transforms the sorrowful, negative aspects of war into an artistic and cartoon-like vision," Simionati said.
The unifying factor in all the works of the artists is that they reflect a powerful creative energy sparked by the tumult of the region, the curator said.
"They are just fed up with the wars, the political interests and the economics of petrol," Simionati said. "Art is the only bridge to recovery, to make people think and to make people know what is happening in a beautiful way."
"Barakat" is on view at the Stefan Stux Gallery at 530 W. 25th Street through Sept. 11.
