The Muslim concept of the Unseen (الغيب or al-ghayb) refers to that which is hidden from the visible world and beyond human perception. In this exhibit, the Unseen frames the work of thirteen international contemporary artists whose varied approaches to photography examine the frontier between opacity and transparency, the intersection of spirituality and art, and the limits of perception and representation.

In the artworks, the Unseen manifests as a form of unknowability—a dimension that shapes our reality. The photographs highlight the hidden, the invisible, the secret, and the absent, concepts associated with Sufi Islam, a powerful tradition of spiritual contemplation in which aspirants seek to experience the divine. By using photography to explore these themes, the artworks shift the burden of representation from those under scrutiny to the beholder. Instead of easily perceived content, the subject remains partially obscured and layered with meanings that call for deeper rumination. This process invokes the Sufi path, where discipline, service, and ritual observance gradually reveal truths that previously eluded recognition.

Since its invention in 1839, photography has been bound by a similar paradox. The camera strives to capture the truth while simultaneously suppressing it. Photography often promises realism or an honest representation by documenting the visible world, yet it is inherently limited by its medium. Many external forces – like the technological limits of the camera, the inherent qualities of people or objects in the frame, or the surrounding societal power structures – prevent a photograph from fully representing reality. For example, a photograph can document a birth or a death but can never fully capture the origins of life or the pain when it is lost. It is not just the subject of the photograph that falls short but also the incomplete feelings that a photograph evokes. Photography’s fragmented reality fails to fully capture the essence of the truth it promises. The concept of the Unseen gives us a new way to think about photography.

While many of the artists have some relationship with Muslim-majority contexts around the world, their work resists singular labels. As the exhibit includes African, Asian, European, and American artists, it questions the standard geographies of the “Muslim World,” usually associated with North Africa and Southwest Asia. Artists based in Milan, Italy, as well as Newark, appear alongside artists from Brooklyn, New York, and Dakar, Senegal, exhibiting the global reach of photography and spirituality in contemporary art. Some adhere to the documentary style of photojournalism, while others experiment with the materiality of the photographic process to produce abstract images.

Transparent knowledge based on observable reality often requires dehumanizing objectification. Race, for example, is supposedly rationalized on a scientific basis through visible differences among populations. It is rendered visible through photography and other means of violent exploitation. This historical injustice in the representation of these visible differences must be rectified. Thus, representation is a conundrum: it is both imperative and perilous. Through their engagement with the Unseen via photography, the artworks in this show offer a third way, reassigning the responsibility of the labor of representation to the viewer. 

Exhibiting Artists

Yasi Alipour, Laylah Amatullah Barrayn, Younes Baba-Ali, Charlotte Brathwaite, Nene Aïssatou Diallo, Binta Diaw, Bruno Hadjih, Chester Higgins, Amina Kadous, Baseera Khan, Gordon Parks, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, and Malick Welli

Curators

Sandrine Colard, Wendell Marsh, Alex Dika Seggerman, and Aude Tournaye

Exhibition Design 

AD—WO: Emanuel Admassu, Jen Wood, and Katherine Solien