This piece was made for the Femmes Forces exhibit at Ai Gallery. In thinking about what might count as a feminine strength, I settled on this: women in a variety of circumstances have had to cultivate the ability to charm or entertain in order to persuade, sometimes with life-or-death consequences (as in the case of Scheherazade). Artists, too, employ this capacity, although the consequences are very rarely so severe.

Scheherazade is the woman who appears in the story that frames the Arabian Nights. This story has many versions, but the most popular goes something like this: There is a king who has made a habit of marrying women and murdering them on their wedding night. When the king chooses her sister as his next wife, Scheherazade asks that she be allowed to spend one night with him before they are married. The king accepts. On that first night, Scheherazade stays up late with the king and entertains him with a story. At dawn, she stops the story just before the ending. The king, wanting to hear the rest, invites her back the next night. Scheherazade finishes her story and begins another that again cuts off at dawn. This goes on for 101 nights (the stories that Scheherazade tells constituting the 101 tales of the Arabian Nights). Along the way, the king falls in love with Scheherazade (his first time) and on the hundredth night they are married. The following dawn, Scheherazade finally finishes a story, and the king tucks her into bed, unharmed.