The Absurdist Hijabs and Instagram Wizardry of One Millennial Artist

When the New York-based artist Meriem Bennani took off this past August for a two-month stint of surfing, filming and researching in her native Rabat, Morocco, the 27-year-old commemorated the occasion by posting a quick Instagram video of herself whizzing between New York and Morocco with a single swing of the camera. Two weeks later, Bennani posted from a shoot in Barcelona: stills from the latest episode of “Fardaous Funjab,” her fake reality TV show centered on a fictitious hijab designer and her absurdist headpieces. Playing on the idioms of post-Internet culture, the young video artist’s Instagram acts as an alternative outlet for her impressive skills as an animator and filmmaker, and for her outlandish sense of humor. “Reality TV and Instagram have their own languages,” says the Cooper Union graduate. “I like toying with the familiar and then making it into something else.”

Video: <iframe src=”https://player.vimeo.com/video/106769087″ width=”500″ height=”281″ frameborder=”0″ webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>

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