The Exhibitions

Halal Metropolis was a series of exhibitions installed between Summer 2019 - Summer 2021 in six different locations in South East Michigan (Detroit, Hamtramck, Howell, Dearborn, Ann Arbor, and ending back in Detroit; effectively encompassing the region we describe as the Halal Metropolis). The exhibition series, each instance modified specifically to address the local perspectives, explored the facts, fictions and imaginaries of the Muslim population(s) in this region as viewed through historical and archival research, documentation of current conditions, and explorations of future desires. The Halal Metropolis alludes to the established and growing Muslim population in Detroit and its metro area, one of the largest and most diverse Muslim populations in the U.S., whose visibility is both pronounced and extremely present in the city, yet whose narrative seems unusually silent in the larger Detroit story. The exhibition moves beyond wanting to simply illustrate or document the current state of this Halal Metropolis into exploring the congruent and contradicting ideas, aesthetics, and cultures working to make the Halal metropolis both a real and imaginary entity.