Road to Self-Acceptance

US-based Malaysian artist Azzah Sultan reflects on art’s ability to shape her worldview

- Tania Jayatilaka

“I always look back at the art I made during my undergrad years and go, ‘Wow, I was really young and really angry,’” laughs 26-year-old Azzah Sultan.

The daughter of a diplomat, Dato’ Syed Sultan Idris, Azzah was born in Abu Dhabi before spending her childhood in Malaysia, Saudi, Finland, Bahrain and Ireland. At 16, she moved to New York, later acquiring a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Parsons School of Design.

“Back then, I was frustrated with the way I was viewed as a Muslim woman. I felt like I constantly had to make work about being Muslim, and I started feeling trapped, like I was in a box or label, and that was all I had to talk about. I knew this was counter-intuitive and in a way, it sort of fed into the tropes and stereotypes surrounding me. So I started making work about my upbringing, ethnicity, nationality, cultural background—all the things that were confusing to me. I started using art as a way to navigate this world and understand it a bit more.”