Meet Samar Hejazi, the Canadian-Palestinian artist at centre of this year’s Met Gala | Canada Voices

When New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art opens its highly anticipated Costume Art exhibit at the Met Gala on May 4, the work of Canadian-Palestinian artist Samar Hejazi will be at the centre of it all.

Attendees – including the evening’s co-chairs, Anna Wintour, Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman and Venus Williams – will literally see themselves reflected in Hejazi’s work.

The Toronto native has spent several years creating intricate artworks of Palestinian embroidery. Her textile pieces have been shown at Burnaby Art Gallery in B.C. and the Textile Museum of Canada in Toronto. But it was Hejazi’s earlier work with mannequin heads that caught the eye of the Costume Institute’s head curator, Andrew Bolton, who selected her to create reflective, polished steel heads for the exhibit’s 200-plus mannequins.

Hejazi has never visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art and will experience it for the first time when she sees her pieces on display in the institution’s new 12,000-square-foot Condé M. Nast Galleries.

From Dubai, where she’s now based, Hejazi spoke to The Globe and Mail about receiving a cold email from Bolton, her conflicting feelings about this year’s gala and preparing for the biggest moment of her career.

Can you tell us a little bit about your practice and recent work?

I’m a multidisciplinary artist. I do textile work, embroidery, installation, sculpture and printmaking. A lot of it is based on identity – the formation of identity and self-identification.

The Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Art exhibit opens to the public on May 10. How did you get involved?

It honestly came out of nowhere. Andrew Bolton saw some sculptures I’d made in 2014 or 2015. They were mannequin sculptures made with mirrors, crystals and plaster. He sent me an e-mail. I didn’t necessarily believe that it was actually Andrew Bolton until we had a call and he was explaining his concepts [for the exhibit], and they were aligning perfectly with the concepts I had when I was making those pieces.

How do your mirrored heads pair with the theme and clothes in the exhibit?

The theme of Costume Art and the work kind of developed in different places. What we were focusing on was how to get the viewer to empathize and see themselves in the work.

You’ve said that when you begin a new project, you ask yourself, “Why am I having this experience?” How would you answer that question with regard to these pieces?

It’s a new audience, and it’s an opportunity to have a voice in a place where I wouldn’t necessarily have one. It was like a door was opened for me that I didn’t think would ever be opened, by some blessing and the universe and Andrew Bolton.

Then again, it’s a sense of responsibility. I’m Palestinian. I don’t live in the West, and if you get an opportunity to step up, it’s not just an opportunity for me. It gives other people power.

How long did it take you to make the pieces, and what was the process like?

It was pretty rushed. I got an e-mail at the end of May. By the time Andrew and I spoke, it was June. By the beginning of September, the pieces were done.

We had so many ideas, and we wanted to make prototypes of all of them. There was mold-making and 3D printing involved. Then we worked directly on the mannequin that [the Costume Institute] had given us.

In the end, we ended up with a male head and a female one, and then two where the face is angled because some of the mannequins are on these huge plinths, and you want the viewer to still be able to see them. Then there was one for the fat body – [the Costume Institute] said that it’s socially acceptable to use this term.

So you made a few initially, and then they replicated them?

Yeah, exactly.

There’s been some controversy around the gala this year because of the involvement of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez Bezos. What are your thoughts on that?

I think it’s funny when people ask if I have an opinion on the controversy, because as a Palestinian Arab artist on this side of the world, I do have some opinions about Jeff Bezos. But I have stronger, more pressing opinions about other things.

Will you be attending the gala, and if so, will you be wearing some of your own pieces?

If we manage to get onto the red carpet, I’m hoping to collaborate with a Palestinian designer here to put my embroidery work on the outfit that I wear.

You live in Dubai, a city that’s been impacted by the U.S.-Iran war. How do you reconcile the juxtaposition between that reality and this glamorous, high-profile event?

There was a point where I was like, where’s the meaning in all of it? It’s such a contrast to be existing with pain close by and to think that I’m going to go to the West and celebrate. How do you hold both in your body?

I think like most Palestinians or Arabs, we can hold both. We can hold joy and pain, and we’re very good at existing in a little bit of chaos and lack of stability.

Costume Art explores the question of fashion as art. Where do you land on that subject? Is fashion a form of art?

I find it strange that we separate fashion from art because it’s the same creative energy. It’s still self-expression. It’s just a different canvas. I’m happy that we’re working on bringing them closer together.

Are you excited about what you’ve created for the exhibit?

Yes, I’m excited. I don’t think it’s hit [yet] because I just sent the heads [to the museum]. I don’t really know what they’re going to look like, especially if there are a hundred of them.

This interview has been edited and condensed.