Sheena Goodyear · CBC Radio

· Posted: May 04, 2026 5:50 PM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours ago

LISTEN | Full interview with artist Samar Hejazi:

When Toronto's Samar Hejazi first got an email from the Met Gala's curator last year asking to feature her art at the world's biggest, glitziest fashion event, she says she didn't believe it was real.

"I was like, 'Does ChatGPT talk like this?'" she said.

But a few weeks later, she was on a Zoom call with curator Andrew Bolton discussing how she could incorporate her work into the 2026 event.

Since then, she says, it's been like living in "another world."

The Met Gala is a star-studded annual fundraiser known for its elaborate fashion. It brings in tens of millions of dollars every year to the the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute, which preserves and exhibits more than 33,000 objects spanning seven centuries of fashion.

This year's gala is themed "costume art," and will feature bespoke mannequins, each wearing a historical costume beneath a head made of steel with a smooth mirror surface in lieu of a face.

Those heads are the creation of Hejazi, a Palestinian Canadian artist now based in Dubai, known for her work in sculpture, textiles, printmaking and installation. She spoke to As It Happens host Nil Kӧksal on Monday as she was gearing up to hit the red carpet.

These final hours before you appear on the carpet, what's that like for you? 

A series of fitting into clothes and doing hair and fitting into shoes and fitting into dresses and, you know, trying not to be too nervous meeting all these important people. 

It's different than the often-solitary work of an artist. 

It's like the complete opposite.

You also got to preview the exhibit and see your work embedded in it. What was that like? What did that mean to you, to see your work featured at the Met?

It was interesting to see it transform the space because, you know, when I'm working, it's only reflecting one person. But when you see it in an exhibition like that, it is reflecting multiple people. It's reflecting the space. So it adds a lot to the curatorial narrative.

What do you hope the visitors tonight, and those who come after the gala — you know, the rest of us that can come see the exhibit — what do you hope they feel when they're looking into those mirrors?

The whole idea of it was for them to feel more involved in the experience of the work. So be involved in the body, be involved with the work, be involved in the narrative. So it's a way of shifting them from observer to active participant in the exhibition. 

I hope that that leads to some kind of internal conversation or questioning of the work that's presented because they're involved in it.

Hejazi checks out the Met Gala exhibit while dressed head-to-toe in pieces by Arab designers, including a dress by Reemami, bag by Okhtein, accessories by Zaid Farouki and shoes by Andrea Wazen. (Zara Surti/Zora)

What does this kind of visibility for you as an artist, a Palestinian Canadian artist, mean at this moment?

It brings a lot more visibility and it's like a really big progression. But it also means as a Palestinian, and also as a Canadian, it kind of gives a bit of inspiration or power to other Palestinians, other Canadians, that think that they can't reach this level. 

This is an event that is hugely popular ... but every year there is always controversy associated with it, in terms of the display of wealth and the opulence. But this year, in particular, the fact that the main funders of this gala are [Amazon] Jeff Bezos and his wife Lauren Sánchez Bezos. There have been calls for boycotts. We know some people aren't attending, including New York's mayor. How did all of that … factor into your decision-making when the Met reached out to you?

I'm Palestinian. I am Canadian. I live in Dubai. We don't think about ... the Met Gala,  specifically, and the politics around it as much as we think about, you know, the other things. 

So for me, it was an event that always has controversy. There's more of it. I wouldn't know how to speak about it. 

You felt comfortable proceeding and being a part of it?

I felt a bit off. But I also felt that it was more important for me to be present as a Palestinian Canadian than to not be present and then have no visibility.

You are going to walk the red carpet. You're going to wear a gown. Tell us what you'll be wearing.

Yes, yes, I will be wearing a gown by Zaid Farouki. He's a Palestinian designer. He's also based in Dubai. He customized it for me, so yeah, it's exciting.

What's more nerve-wracking: Watching people put their faces across from the heads that you've created, or walking that red carpet and posing for the photographers?

I'm definitely a lot more comfortable watching people look at my work than I am having people look at me wearing artwork. 

But we'll see. I mean, it's the first time I've done this. I might just go on autopilot.