Sara Helmy

This project is a speculative design in the form of an artistic installation, exploring what Barbara Creed called the "monstrous-feminine" in a Middle Eastern context. After exploring the limitations of aesthetician spaces exclusive to women in Cairo, Egypt, using an auto-ethnographic approach, I found that interviewees’ responses showed a lack of affinity to these spaces meant to serve as havens from bodily constraints. Rather, they found comfort and empowerment at home and wanted further privacy within these supposedly private spaces. Some referenced the digital world of the Internet and video games.

The feminine/queer art and content creation spaces on Instagram and TikTok—transparent, taboo, "monstrous" landscapes—align with these responses. Thus, instead of making physical fixes within these spaces, I used a theoretical framework based on the study of monstrosity through different lenses (quantum physics, film, mythology) to explore an interiority beyond the physical space. Here, AFAB individuals are invited as performers to express the "messier" side of themselves—such as frustration they aren't allowed to express in everyday life. The tools given to them in this space allow for the luxury of release without the need to share personal information with an audience, who, in horror film fashion, must occasionally endure some discomfort for their voyeurism.