Journal Archives

Hani Zurob – Nahla Ink Featured Artist (Winter 2023)

To resonate with this emotionally harsh season, Nahla Ink is featuring the works of the artist Hani Zurob, who has sacrificed years of his life for being Gazan, forced into exile from his Palestinian homeland for 16 years. Much of his art, not all of it, touches upon how the geopolitical can influence the personal; and, how that also impacts on universal themes of identity, place and memory, as well as the specific states of suspension, delay and waiting, alienation, movement and displacement, absence and resistance.

I personally got in touch with Zurob recently, when I came upon his Instagram feed. Scrolling for visual accounts interpreting the current hell scenes on our computers, Tvs and mobile screens, I was drawn to the intense energy emanating from his pieces that date back in recent time. When no rational mind can make sense out of the disproportionate Israeli punishment against the defenceless innocents today, I had to turn to artists for respite and momentary closure; they alone are alchemists, able to turn human ugliness and psycho-pathological madness into psychic gold, beauty and power.

Excuse me Piter Doig: This is a sea canoe’, 2015, mixed media on canvas, 200 X 160 cm

“I was always trying not to believe that we were alone. But unfortunately: how alone we are in the sea of humanity’s darkness.” Hani Zurob

Of course Israel’s violence is nothing new to the Palestinians, marked in the textbooks by the Al Nakba of 1948, which saw the forced expulsion and dispossession of the Palestinians, as well as by later Nakbas. We all know, also, that the original ‘catastrophe’ can be traced back to the arrival of the Zionists in Ottoman-held Palestine in the late 19th Century, whose cause was expedited by the British with the Balfour Declaration in 1917.

Now-93-67-48, 2016, tar and mixed media on canvas, 200 x 65cm, Institut du monde arabe collection

In an insightful interview article by Italian journalist Naima Morelli for Middle East Monitor (MEMO) published in January, 2022, Zurob pointed out: “For a Palestinian who is in exile it is difficult to quantify or qualify one’s losses; your struggles for your right to live become a constant. As for my gains, they lie in my art practice and art; my art is my heaven, it is the compass of my Self and Soul without which I am lost.

“When one is not deeply connected to one’s Soul, life will be gruelling… I reached that point through my constant inner quest into the Self and the journey to purify the Soul; this for me is my victory over any form of threat.”

Now-93-67-48, 2016, tar and mixed media on canvas, 200 x 65cm, Institut du monde arabe collection

Although the Palestinian tale is old without a foreseeable just end, it happens to affect each and every single one of us. Voluntarily or not, we are bearing witness to the tip of an historic genocide, of an Occupier state brutalizing women, children, journalists, academics, musicians, and artists who have done absolutely nothing wrong.

Ignorance is not really an optional alibi; and, especially, as we have awoken to the complicit inaction by powerful governments, who continue to protect Israel, and stubbornly refuse to do the right thing. Even as the millions peacefully protest ‘Not in Our name’, nothing has shifted; making us all swallow the bitter pill of double-standards and hypocrisy.

No matter, the dirty politics will continue and the unholy wars will be waged, until the end of the human story on the earth. What becomes relevant is what can be done in the meantime to empower the wounded soul and satisfy the ethical balance, guided by our desperate need to still believe in some form of karmic justice. Again, this is where artists have always walked ahead of us, I trust them to be my friends in these worrying times.

Artist Biography – Courtesy of the Artist

Hani Zurob [b. 1976 in Rafah camp, Gaza Strip, Palestine] is a contemporary visual artist who has been living and working in Paris, France since 2006. He obtained his Bachelor’s in Fine Arts from Al-Najah University, Nablus in 1999. In 2002, while living in Ramallah, he was selected as a finalists of the A. M. Qattan Foundation ‘Young Artist of the Year’ Award that was a turning point for his future career, topped by a residency grant at Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris in 2006.

Zurob’s pieces tend to conjure private experience and the stories that have shaped his life; and, in particular, how these connect to the unfolding events in Palestine, carrying both political and cultural dimensions. Searching and researching memories, the artist deconstructs the relationship between the past and present, on himself and others, to be able to transcend borders and geography.

In terms of material, Zurob selects media to the extent of its literal meaning or, at times, pointing to metaphorical associations to amplify his message. Most notably, he uses tar, which has allowed him to present a unique contextualized vision of Palestine, referencing the time of youth up until the present age.

Residing in Paris, he has forged a successful career with exhibitions held worldwide and having been the recipient of many Arab and international awards, including Renoir Stock Exchange Prize, France (2009). Today, he is considered one of the most brilliant and influential Palestinian artist of his generation.

Low-Quality Love, 2015, Tar and mixed media on canvas, 240×200 cm, Institut du monde arabe collection

His work can also be found in several prominent private and public art collections, including those of: The British Museum (London, UK), The Arab American National Museum (Michigan, USA), Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova, MSUM (Ljjubljan, Slovenia); Williamsburg Art & Historical Center (New York, USA); Institut du Monde Arabe (Paris, France), Barjeel Art Foundation (Sharjah, UAE), Dalloul Art Foundation (Beirut, Lebanon), Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts (Amman, Jordan), among others.

In 2012 a monograph tracing the evolution of his work, titled ‘Between Exits: Paintings By Hani Zurob’ (Black Dog Publishing, London), was compiled by Kamal Boullata, including an introduction by the late art critic Jean Fisher.

“Hani’s practice provides an important voice in contemporary Palestinian culture, as well as a significant contribution to the creation of an Arab aesthetic. Ultimately though, while Zurob’s art gives powerful expression to the Palestinian collective experience, it can also be seen in the context of more universal themes of personal identity and embraces humanity beyond the Palestinian context.” Kamal Boullata

For more on the artist: https://www.hanizurob.com/

To follow his Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hanizurob/

I highly recommend reading the full MEMO interview article by Naima Morelli: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220126-floating-in-tar-interview-with-palestinian-artist-hani-zurob/

Where, if not faraway, is my place? Artist Nour Jaouda celebrates solo show +Essay by Louise Benson

Where, if not faraway, is my place?

Recently I attended the launch of a solo show for the Libyan artist Nour Jaouda at Union Pacific, London. It was a wonderfully busy event with a young mix of guests who came to see the work and congratulate the artist on the hard work she’s put in over the past year. Gracing the space over two floors, clearly some great effort had been taken to install and place some of the heavy and intricate sculptural pieces.

As I walked around and later mingled, I met some of Jaouda’s Libyan family and Cairene friends who had come from abroad to celebrate this significant early career achievement. Born in 1997, Jaouda grew up in Cairo, Egypt before she came to the UK to study at The Ruskin School of Art, Oxford University (BFA, 2018) and later obtain a post-graduate degree from Royal College of Art, London (MA Painting, 2021). Showing promise from student days, Jaouda was the inaugural Winner of the Emery Prize during her last year at Oxford and Finalist for the Hopper Prize in 2021.

I asked directors of the gallery Nigel Dunkley and Grace Schofield, how and why Union Pacific had picked Jaouda for this show. They said: “We found Nour’s work through researching graduates of local universities. We felt that Nour’s practice stood out because of the textile focus– we had been looking at textile work for some time, and Nour’s art is unique in its relationship to both social history and personal reflection.

“Nour hand-dyes her fabrics in natural pigments, creating infinite variations of colour; this, and the layering she uses, creates a painterly quality to her work and grabbed our attention immediately. On our very first visit to her studio, we wanted to offer her a show and were extremely excited by the potential of our collaboration.“

Nour Jaouda If the olive tree knew the hand that planted them (Detail), 2023 Fabric dye on canvas, hand-dyed cotton tassels, steel

I also wanted to know from Jaouda what this project signifies for her creative journey. She offered: “‘Where if not faraway is my place’ is an exploration of my relationship to the volatile narratives of time, place and belonging. The work is a continuation of my never-ending struggle to materialise personal and collective memory and examine the fluidity of our cultural identity.

“Embodying all the different elements of my practice, textile design, painting, sculpture and installation, each piece in the space is a fragment of the overall installation, as if they were all deconstructed from one another. This deconstructionist approach to making attempts to leave the viewer’s mind driven to construct unity, meaning and closure.”

Nour Jaouda Where the fig tree cannot be fenced, 2023 Fabric dye and pigment on canvas, steel, cement, ceramic

Referring to the above installation, she also said: “Taking the architectural shape of a deconstructed gate, with textile pieces weaved through its steel ridges, I wanted the installation ‘Where the fig tree cannot be fenced’ to be experienced as if it were a gate in a constant process of becoming, hovering in the liminal space between creation and destruction, where borders within the space are created and opened up.”

Still searching for clues to have a deeper understanding, I finally chanced upon an essay penned by Louise Benson, which had been specifically commissioned by Union Pacific for the launch. This is what truly opened my eyes to Jaouda’s intense labour of love in sourcing and transporting her material from one continent to another, to welding tough steel and manipulating cement; and, ultimately, how these works have come to reference an inner realm of thought and humble emotion as well as the desire to put the transcendental into an art form.

Thus with kind permission from Union Pacific and Benson, the article is republished below.

Lastly I am honoured Jaouda has agreed to be a Nahla Ink Featured Artist (Summer Season 2023) so I can share the work more extensively on social media in the coming days. As a fellow and older Libyan, it gives me that much extra pride to introduce her to my readers and wish her every success!

Please note: If you are in London, there is still time to visit the ‘Where, if not faraway, is my place?’ exhibition, until 15 July, 2023. Union Pacific Gallery’s opening hours are Wednesday-Saturday from 12noon-6pm. Nearest tube station is Aldgate East.

Where, if not faraway, is my place? – Essay by Louise Benson

“Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears,” Italo Calvino wrote in Invisible Cities.

Streets are lined with the secret lives that play out inside the home, revealed in furtive glimpses through windows and doors left ajar, its architecture a patchwork imprint of the people that have passed through these locales. Each view around the next corner unfurls a line drawn from the present into the past, of family history passed through generations and the wending lines of ships that have brought migrants overseas.

Nour Jaouda was born between two places and now finds herself with connections to three. Born and raised in Cairo within a Libyan family, she currently lives between London and Cairo, and keeps a studio in each. Cairo, the place that Jaouda first called home, is a city that is ever-renewing, a hybrid space built upon majestic history and colonial intervention, of a yearning for the past and a drive towards the future. Her relationship to the ancient Egyptian city is shaped by her family’s history of migration and a feeling of existing in-between, a slippery experience of presence and non-presence, and of what exactly it means to belong.

Nour Jaouda Blindspot (Detail), 2023 Fabric dye on canvas, hand-dyed cotton tassels, steel

The many layers that make up Jaouda’s work are woven from this same palimpsest of time and space, of fabric stitched together from the threads of her own multifaceted identity and split sense of self. Textiles found by the artist at markets in Cairo and London, a mix of raw and primed canvas and pure Egyptian cotton, are stitched together and blended in new shapes. Some textures are loose or rough, while others are tightly bound. Together their topography offers an alternative map of her encounters with the city, localised to their street corners and flashes of her brief interactions with their vendors.

“Colour,” Josef Albers once reflected, “is the most relative medium in art.” Just as there are infinite shades of green when looking up at a tree or out at a foggy mountain in the distance, so are there endless variations to be found in the interaction of colour with cloth. Jaouda dyes her materials in vivid natural pigments that transform each scrap through their saturation into a rainbow array of yellows, pinks, greens and blues that dance and infuse through them, like a drop of ink amidst a vast pool of water. Colour comes alive and is made physical, three dimensional, pushing outwards into new forms that crease and intensify with time.

Neither a painter nor a sculptor, instead hovering somewhere between the two, Jaouda nevertheless has a painter’s sensibility in her attunement to the effect that a bright or muted hue can have upon the shifting of a mood or even the most fleeting of feelings. A soft colour glimpsed on a passer-by can bring back an intense yearning for a loved one, or a memory long forgotten.

Nour Jaouda Blindspot, 2023 Fabric dye on canvas, hand-dyed cotton tassels, steel

In Jaouda’s restless work, the remarkable fluidity of textiles becomes fully apparent. Cloth can be folded inwards, packed and transported, rolled up and bound. It can also be stretched wide, unfurled, fanned out and draped to form a cloak or even a temporary place of rest. A single sheet of cotton can, with a gust of wind, shift momentarily from two to three dimensions.

For Jaouda, the tactility of her materials is rooted in this transformative quality, shapeshifting in a tension between sanctuary and fragility, mass-production and personalisation. Cut and sewn, deconstructed and then reconstructed, they give away glimpses of social history and personal reflection that trickle away like a conversation briefly overheard from a cafe terrace, at once unfamiliar and yet profound.

The structure and design of Jaouda’s wall pieces are inspired by the Islamic prayer mat, with the tassels and textiles nodding to the spiritual spaces that are created from the highly specific configuration of materials in the form of divine geometry. Reconfigured and pulled apart, Jaouda suspends these stitched scraps from bent steel, cascading down from the metalwork in a delicate array of shapes that meld the industrial qualities of the steel with the intimate domestic associations of woven fabric.

Jaouda’s steel frames are themselves formed from fragments of the past, taken directly from former gates and doors dotted around downtown Cairo, where the faded grandeur of the European-inflected colonial architecture can still be seen in increasing disrepair. Removed and remade by Jaouda in patterns that echo their origins, the old is inherently embedded in the new. Each piece hints at the streets that these curved steel gates once flanked, their doorways the division between exterior and interior, simultaneously forbidding and welcoming, a portal between two states of being.

While walking down the street, I have occasionally encountered a foot or handprint frozen in the cement of the pavement, or even a playful graffitied drawing hastily scratched with a twig. I once saw the paw print of a cat fossilised in the grey concrete on an overcast London afternoon, a permanent record of a momentary strut across the surface as the cement was still setting, like a shadow that refuses to disappear with the shifting sunlight. How long ago, I wondered, had that cat walked across this path?

Under Jaouda’s direction, cement becomes a surface for excavation, somewhere between sculpture and drawing, as she carves rapidly into its still liquid face before it hardens. Where the stitching of textiles requires a slowness that defies the natural rhythms of intuition, sketching in cement invites rapid decision-making and mark-making that is part-deliberate, part-unconscious in its many twists and turns. Is that a fig tree in the monotone of the concrete? Representation melts away into abstraction, colour into hard stone.

Nour Jaouda Immortal olive tree, 2023 Cement, fabric dye, steel

There is a constant sensation when encountering Jaouda’s installations of a work in progress, of the unravelling (or rebuilding) or a project that is just midway through and still active. Their unfinished qualities – provisional, full of possibility, with the artist’s hand still present – are the key to their seductive allure. After all, what separates an artist’s studio from the gallery? The heavy frames encircling the hung canvases and the lick of white paint upon the walls? Jaouda brings her process, at once repetitive and ritualistic, into the gallery, where each work is an invitation to trace its history back not just to its inception in the studio but even further into the past.

Broken apart and fragmented, Jaouda invites us to participate in putting the pieces back together again. We peer through the doorway and hover on the threshold, before taking the first step inside.

Essay republished on Nahla Ink Online Journal courtesy of Benson and Union Pacific. Images courtesy of the artist and Union Pacific.

Union Pacific is a contemporary art gallery in East London that houses diverse and ambitious exhibitions. Spread across two floors, the gallery facilitates a range of experimental projects with international artists that range from paintings, sculpture and video.

For more on Union Pacific: https://unionpacific.co.uk/

For more on Louise Benson: https://www.louisebenson.com/

To follow Nour Jaouda via Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nour.jaouda/

This article was first published circa July 2023

Mohamed Al Kharrubi – Nahla Ink Featured Artist (Spring 2022)

Nahla Ink is always that little bit extra proud to feature a Libyan artist, this time from my home city of Tripoli, Mohamed Khalifa Al Kharrubi (born in 1974), with a huge big thanks to art curator Najlaa El-Ageli, of Noon Arts Projects.

El-Ageli first presented the artist in London as part of the collective exhibition ‘Retracing a Disappearing Landscape’ at P21 Gallery, which later travelled to Spain at the Casa Arabe in both Madrid and Cordoba. The show had explored the direct experience of and fascination with memory and personal history relating to modern day Libya.

Since I have been intrigued by Al Kharrubi’s distinct style of Arabic calligraphy with the detectable Sufi undertones in his brush movement and the reinterpretation of the Arabic alphabet with the deliberately chosen words and phrases, in which we almost feel his active meditation on the meaning and the spiritual power they hold.

Having grown up and studied in Tripoli, he most recently completed a Masters of Arts at the Libyan Academy of Postgraduate Studies. His work so far has been exhibited in Libya, and outside Libya, mainly through international art fairs in Tunisia, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Austria, the UAE (Sharjah), Egypt (Cairo), Algeria, Spain, England and Italy.

I recently connected with Al Kharrubi and asked some brief questions so I could share with Nahla Ink readers a little bit more about his artistic practice. As we communicated in Arabic, below is a rough translation!

Nahla: Why Arabic calligraphy?

Al Kharrubi: I am inspired by calligraphy because it has an amazing expressive ability in the diversity of its forms, with its flexibility, sequence and overlap. It is an authentic component of my identity and affiliation.

Nahla: What words or phrases do you use and play with and why?

Al Kharrubi: Often (no) is present in my paintings, perhaps to signify the rejection of the prevailing and opposition to the familiar, but the (no) form remains what attracts me to its distinction.

Nahla: What art materials and techniques do you use?

Al Kharrubi: I tend towards an abstract style using all materials, acrylic, oil, and offset printing inks by virtue of my first specialization in the art of gravure printing (graphics). Currently I have nothing but my tools and my drawings, technically branching out to them only.

Nahla: Is Libya, as an idea, related to your work?

Al Kharrubi: Yes, but through Tripoli, it bears the fragrance of history and the present.

Nahla: Being based in Libya, what are your hopes for the future?

Al Kharrubi: To stabilize the country, so that art can flourish and keep pace with the times.

Nahla: What do you most care about in life?

Al Kharrubi: Reconciliation with oneself.

Nahla: Give me five words that matter to you.

Al Kharrubi: Freedom then freedom, justice, art and knowledge.

Nahla: Do you have a message to relay through your work?

Al Kharrubi: My message in general is that everyone finds his passion, to define his goal and strive for it with all seriousness. Art itself is a personal message. Above all I try to express myself through it. I do not seek to change the world through art because it is not an educational tool but an aesthetic value.

Nahla: Is there anything you would like to share with an international audience?

Al Kharrubi: I paint if I exist, access to the whole world has become available and easy thanks to technology. We only have to master what we do and do what we love, and the world will see us as we are.

To follow Mohamed Al Kharrubi on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mohamedalkharrubi/

On Noon Arts Projects, highlighting Libyan art: https://www.noonartsprojects.com/

COMBO aka Combo Culture Kidnapper – Nahla Ink Artist of the Month (December 2021)

I am so excited to end the year by featuring the French-Moroccan street artist, COMBO. Highlighting his exhibition ‘Our Home’, that is currently on show at the Sulger-Buel Gallery in SE1, it is a treat to have this visual artist hosted in London and for a rare indoor display of his work, open to the public until 7 January, 2022.

COMBO, aka Combo Culture Kidnapper, was born in 1989 in Amiens, France to a Lebanese-Christian father and a Moroccan-Muslim mother. With North African and Middle Eastern roots mixed with a European consciousness, it gives him an unusual perspective reflected in the intricacies of his pieces and underlying messages.

Having graduated from Villa Arson in Nice, he began with graffiti across the French Riviera, spending some years experimenting with spray paint. After a short stint working as an artistic director for advertising agencies in Paris, by 2012 he decided to return and dedicate himself to street art, wherein his signature style, beginning to use wheat paste, imports and recycles popular cultural icons, urban myths, comics, cartoons, video games, paintings and photography.

Artist Of The Month — *Spray paint, start of the street artist’s journey*

Expressing a humanistic ethos, COMBO’s projects have been in parallel with significant travels around the world in which he chooses to engage as an artist. For example, in 2012, he infiltrated the forbidden area of Chernobyl to post advertising posters denouncing nuclear energy in relation with the anniversary of the accident at the Fukushima Plant. He also posted, in 2013, Google pages in Hong Kong that had been banned by the communist party, including for the arrest of artist Ai Weiwei. Later in Beirut, Lebanon he posted ‘Less Hamas, More Hummus’; and, at the start of 2017, he parodied posters of the candidates for the French presidential election by posting electoral billboards.

*CoeXist II, 2019 (acrylic ink on paper and canvas)*

Using the wheat paste method to help create and then move his artwork onto street walls, his most famous graffiti was the ‘CoeXist’ project in which he campaigned in France for religious tolerance by a visual text incorporating the signs of the three Abrahamic faiths: a Muslim crescent (for the letter c), a star of David for the X and a Christian cross for the T. In fact, he was attacked whilst painting the wall at Porte Dorée near Paris as part of this work.

Whether referencing current events or tackling controversial themes, COMBO is a master at ‘kidnapping’ cultural motifs that have historical or contemporary significance and then manipulating them in such a way that encourages or provokes one to think about underlying concepts, such as: freedom, civil liberties, capitalism, consumerism, religion and extremist politics. Advocating peace, harmony and diversity, COMBO has said: “My pieces work in a disruptive way, they surprise. They are where they shouldn’t be.”

With a pop-art sense of humour and some cynicism, COMBO also acts as a public commentator who enjoys his hybrid-mixed identity. In particular, he likes to push forward the ‘maghrebisation’ of certain Western consumerist objects by adding Arabic details to them. In doing so, he invites a critical interplay between Western and non-Western culture, although denouncing any superiority of one over the other. Rather, he demonstrates the added value of such globally recognised items when they are adopted by the Arab market and how they come to be adapted or altered for different local use.

*Berber Girl with a Pearl Earring, 2021*

In his current exhibition ‘Our home / دارنا ‘ – his first one in a London gallery – he has put together an installation that invites one into his imagined abode. As described by Najlaa El-Ageli, who curated the show: “The interactive installation works by recreating the intimate domestic space of a Moroccan sitting room and how it may be fantasized by the orientalist gaze, thus inviting the participant to discuss and investigate the evolution of the relationship between two complex cultural entities, using art as a space of a new narrative and perspective.”

*Family women, 2021 (acrylic ink on paper)*

On the walls of the gallery that has become his imaginary living room, COMBO has recreated some of his mural works from the past to the present and placed them in a way that they also reference his personal family story. He has also added a dining table on top of which are Moroccan ceramic items next to European and American popular consumer products, like Kellogg’s Frosties and Heinz Baked Beans, showing the interconnected realities as they sit innocently side by side.

And there is a lot more to discover in the mix of objects that are on the shelves, including the Moroccan fez designed by the artist with the Paris Saint-Germain Football Club logo and the beer bottles styled with tassels for fun! I highly recommend a visit before the exhibition ends.

Biography, some text and images courtesy of the Sulger-Buel Gallery.

For more on COMBO on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/combo_ck/

For more on COMBO on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/combo.culturekidnapper/

For the Sulger-Buel Gallery: https://www.sulger-buel-gallery.com/

Alia Derouiche Cherif – Nahla Ink Artist of the Season (Autumn 2021)

Nahla Ink is so happy to feature the works of Alia Derouiche Cherif for the duration of the Autumn Season 2021. It has been a privilege to get to know the artist online and see her pieces digitally. The happy timing coincides with Cherif’s latest solo show at the Musk & Amber Gallery in the capital city of Tunis under the theme of ‘Tarab’, running from 14 October to 4 November, 2021.

Born and brought up in Tunisia, the 52-year-old versatile creative has several specialties under her belt, including: a Masters in Interior Design, a Masters in Sociology of Art and Doctorate in Science Techniques in the Arts (1997) from the Technological Institute of Art, Architecture and Urbanism of Tunis (ITAAUT). As a Professor of Fashion Design, she has been teaching at a training state college in the northern suburbs of Tunis for the past twenty years. She tells me this college is just a three-minute walk from the turquoise waters of the Mediterranean Sea.

Already exhibited widely in her home country, she even caused controversy at the Bardo National Museum back in 2019 when the Minister of Culture intervened to back and support her work to the surprise of the then Director who wanted to censor it! The image above was taken of the artist at the Bardo with the artwork in question behind her. It had led to the uproar because the text on it says: “The government does not like love”!

When it comes to her artwork, I was firstly drawn to Cherif’s project in relation to the depiction of Middle Eastern and North African women as found on old Colonial postcards. Originally taken by the colonisers during a certain time and age – when the art of Western photography was just blossoming and being experimented with – the shots portray the female subjects in a certain exoticized, romanticized and even fetishised way. A big question mark remains over how these individual women agreed to be pictured or how they were coerced into taking part.

So Cherif took the photographic images she found of these women and gave them a new aesthetic, a fresh interpretation and a current dimension, so that the male Orientalist gaze of the photographer is interrupted and replaced by that of an Arab woman fully in possession of her identity, gender and core human being.

There is, of course, extensive analysis regarding these Colonial photographs, the cameramen behind them and the general treatment of the indigenous populations; as well as the fact that these images are still in popular circulation today, mainly through the purchase and exchange of postcards by avid collectors and others interested in their historical value. Still for others, these images are proof of the arrogant Colonialist and his abuse, that again pertains to much academic debate and robust discussion.

About the postcards’ project, Cherif has said: “I always wanted to explore personal themes and the original idea was to do something creative with photos of my grandmother, but somehow it felt too close to heart and mind and I was blocked! So I looked for her beauty in other women as I found them in the photographs of a similar time.”

In particular, Cherif researched the works of the French-Swiss photographer Jean Geiser (1848-1923), the photos developed by the Lehnert & Landrock Studio as well as those taken by Nathan Boumendi, who were all active in North Africa, especially in Tunisia and Egypt, roughly between the late 1850s to the late 1940s.

She said: “I was led to a new reading of these Orientalist portraits and began to make my version of the old postcards, blended with my memories and with a wink to the contemporary art sphere, so far removed from the universe of these women. I wanted to give the anonymous faces, who used to be photographed without informed consent, a new life that would allow them to proudly identify and become the beloved queens and shining icons that they truly are, whom I also cover with gold. Naming these women too who have no name is to revive them!”

Based on photomontages printed on paper or canvas, Cherif usually employs a mixed technique with acrylics, felt pens, inks, watercolours, pencils and gold leaf for her paintings. Her dual training as an interior designer and stylist also allows her to incorporate draped zelliges, the colourful handcrafted clay tiles best known for their Moorish geometric patterns and found throughout North Africa. Added to this is use of Arabic calligraphy, that usually denotes words of love, though other times the words have no meaning, they just stand for the beauty of the letters as they flow.

Cherif’s paintings are continuously evolving and her latest project ‘Tarab’ is truly to die for, as her figures embody heady feminine power and beauty with the light, the gold and shades of blue. In this she still draws upon her personal memories and reaches out to the collective female psyche, incorporating her Arab Islamic inheritance, as well as the local North African culture with its ornaments and motifs.

She explained to Nahla Ink: “The Tarab in Arabic means an aesthetic emotion of great intensity, an ecstasy caused by a dance, or to vocal and instrumental music. I wanted to find this emotion in my paintings, with the mix of some of the old work and current references. I also want to create the sense that space and time do not exist with the zelliges, as they remain the same from centuries ago, and finally there is a nod to celebrating love itself!”

Looking forward, Cherif is scheduled to take part in two exhibitions in 2022, one in Paris, France and the other in London, UK. In Tunisia, her work has been shown at the Bardo National Museum (Tunis), Alain Nadaud Gallery (Gammarth, Tunis), the Musk & Amber Gallery (Tunis), Elbirou Gallery (Sousse) and the Efesto Salon des Artistes (La Marsa).

To follow the artist on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aliaderouiche/

You may also be interested to read on Nahla Ink: https://www.nahlaink.com/making-the-postcard-womens-imaginarium/

Note: This article was first published on Nahla Ink circa October 2021

Sondos Abdelmalak – Nahla Ink Artist of the Month (August 2021)

Sondos Abdelmalak

This month I am extremely pleased to feature the Tunisian-Jordanian architect and visual artist Sondos Abdelmalak on Nahla Ink and share some of her pieces. Unusual her work most certainly is, but it has such an allure; that once viewed, it remains in your imagination for an unexpected while and with the yearning to see more. Also rare is the fact you can appreciate her work from different angles just the same, whether turned up or sideways!

I first became aware of Abdelmalak’s art last December through an article in the Arab press (http://www.https://alarab.co.uk) shared via Facebook, when I reached out to her and she responded positively. More recently, she also kindly invited me to the London Art Biennale 2021, held at Chelsea Old Town Hall in Kensington, when one of her paintings was exhibited.

Primarily qualified as an architect, Abdelmalak graduated from the National School of Architecture & Urbanism of Tunis in 2010. Currently living with her family in Vienna, Austria and working as such; for Abdelmalak, the art is a more recent development, having become a refuge away from stress and worries in the last few years.

In her own words, Abdelmalak offered: “Painting is my way to be free as a woman and as a human being. I run from the constraints and difficulties I face daily in my profession as an architect, in my life as a woman, wife and mother; to the white canvas, my white papers, my colours, my books and my music. My studio becomes my sanctuary.

“Due to my multiple moving during the last ten years, I have had the chance to live, to work, to paint and to exhibit my artworks in many countries, including: Tunisia, Jordan, The Netherlands, Malaysia, Austria, Italy, The UK, Sweden and India.

“Through my pieces, I try to translate women’s inner worlds and the experience of motherhood, as well as my emotions and dreams. My artistic practice is marked by experimentation; the experimentation in techniques, media, styles and subjects.”

Shaken Reflection, Acrylic on Canvas, Vienna 2020

For example, about her piece titled ‘Shaken Reflection’, Abdelmalak said: “She looks into the water… she sees her reflection. She sees what she thinks of herself, a reflection of her thoughts, never her real self. But what and how is her real self? She shakes the reflection and her thoughts with it. Maybe she will find her truest self in the moving and disturbed water.”

Mother of Two, Acrylic on Canvas, Vienna 2020

In the ‘Mother of Two’, the artist again challenges the idea of what it means to be a mother (usually associated with prosperity, joy, love and unconditional giving) and to integrate that with the reality of daily hard work, an exhausted soul and body, and sense of burden. Therein lies the struggle, how to maintain the balance between being a woman and being a mother.

Above all about her work, she said: “When I paint, I empty myself from myself. I paint my fears, worries, sadness and my dreams … When I paint, I draw the unseen, the thin lines I feel in the ordinary details of every day life.”

To follow the artist on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sondos_ab/

Hasan ‘Alsatoor’ Dhaimish (1955-2016) – A Libyan Artist in Exile

This August brings a tribute exhibition featuring the works of the late Libyan satirist and human rights activist Hasan ‘Alsatoor’ Dhaimish (1955-2016). Titled as ‘Resistance, Rebellion & Revolution’, it shows his prolific output of over 5,000 satirical cartoons spanning four decades, as well as a great selection of his paintings, at the Hoxton 253 venue in the N1 London postcode.

Passionately curated by his children, Sherif and Hanna Dhaimish, they are honouring his loving memory since his passing in 2016 at the age of 61, by sharing his life story through his various bodies of artwork, while also expanding on his personal journey as an exiled Libyan in the UK. Earlier this year also they launched a website where visitors can access the vast catalogue of his output, a biography and more.

His son, Sherif, had the following to say about the exhibition: “The hardest part of this project has been choosing what not to show. My dad was a multifaceted artist. Those familiar with his satirical work often didn’t know about the artworks he produced outside of the political arena; and many of those who knew him here in England had no idea of the reception his cartoons were getting across the globe, particularly when he started his own website. This exhibition is a celebration of his life and the works he created. He was a special man, and his story deserves to be told”.

Hasan had left Benghazi, Libya in 1975 at the age of 19. He settled in Burnley, Lancashire and soon started publishing his critical cartoons in magazines. Hasan’s satire gained popularity in the early 1980s when he began publishing cartoons for oppositional magazines such as Jihad, which was produced in London by Mahmood Suleiman Maghribi.

It wasn’t until the turn of the millennium, however, that Hasan adopted the pseudonym ‘Alsatoor’ (the Cleaver) and started gaining momentum with his satire thanks to the internet. A decade in education and a new career as an A-Level graphics teacher in Lancashire gifted him with a new range of creative skills, allowing his satire to grow with the digital age. Before beginning his own blog, he produced works for popular oppositional websites like Libya Watonona and Libya Mostakbal.

The Hoxton 253 show will have a dedicated display of his satire through the ages – from original magazines, to digital murals criticising Gaddafi and his regime, right through to his working during the 2011 Libyan Revolution and its aftermath, when Alsatoor was at his zenith. Hasan saw Alsatoor’s role as exposing corruption and voicing what he perceived to be the truth, no matter how harsh that might be. He understood and respected the power of ridicule, which is evident in the thousands of works he produced over time.

Coinciding with the satire is a series of paintings he produced outside of the political realm. During the 1990s, Hasan was on the path of artistic exploration and education. He began creating works that used afro-American culture as the subject. From an earlier age, Hasan’s musical taste came from rock n roll, motown in the 1960s, disco and funk in the 1970s, as well as reggae and dub.

However, it wasn’t until his discovery of jazz and Delta blues that the works began to influence his art. As Hasan joined college and then university as a mature student, he unshackled himself from the caricature, and began to use art as an expression from within as well as a political tool.

Hasan once stated: “During my fight against Gaddafi as Alsatoor in the 2000s, I found myself spending long periods working alone. I used to listen to jazz and classical music. The two were my companions on the long British winter nights while sitting in front of the screen. I liked jazz and blues music, it affected my artistic career.

“I loved it due to its melodies, its vitality, and the conditions in which it appeared. The suffering of black people in America at the beginning of the nineteenth century from slavery and racism was a reason behind creating this type of music. I felt a commonality in the suffering and persecution, which made me love it more, and I expressed that in a group of paintings and drawings.”

As part of the efforts to keep their father’s artwork alive and in circulation, Sherif has also published an accompanying limited edition art book that is available to pre-order at all bookstores. It is titled ‘Hasan ‘Alsatoor’ Dhaimish – A Libyan Artist in Exile’ (Pendle Press, 2021).

The exhibition launches on the 18th August with an opening night and will run for the next ten days.

For more on the exhibition: https://www.hoxton253.com/resistance-rebellion-revolution.html

For more on the artworks of Hasan Dhaimish: https://www.alsatoor.com/

This article was first published circa August 2021

Zaid Ayasa: Nahla Ink Artist of the Month (June 2021)

After a short break from the Artist of the Month feature, Nahla Ink is back this June with a new creative whom I am super pleased to introduce to my readers and followers.

Palestinian artist Zaid Ayasa and I got in touch back in October 2020, when I discovered his art page on Facebook. I was taken aback then by his dynamic visual artwork as it approached the Palestinian story; and, its recurring themes of home, belonging to the soil, displacement, desire for peace as well as the right of return.

Using keys as a symbol and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem as the iconic backdrop, his pieces treasure all that is personal to the Palestinian, his verdant land and its fruits, for example, and the indomitable human spirit that has endured so much for so long.

Now that the world had to witness yet another threatened-forced eviction of Palestinians (families living in the Sheikh Jarrah area of East Jerusalem) and the horrible events that unfolded since, including at the Al Aqsa Mosque and attacks on Gaza, it is more relevant than ever to keep attention on local developments there and ensure we take the humanitarian stand by calling out this apartheid regime and join calls for positive change.

I am also pleased to share that Nahla Ink has signed to the Mosaic Rooms’ call to cultural organisations, artists and writers, for solidarity with Palestine and what that entails. You can learn more about this here: https://mosaicrooms.org/call-to-cultural-organisations-artists-writers-for-solidarity-with-palestine/

Biography: Courtesy of the Artist

Zaid Ayasa was born in Nablus, Palestine in 1984 and grew up in Jenin. He is now living and working between Jenin and Ramallah. His artistic education saw him graduate with a BA in Fine Arts & Interior Design from Al-Najah National University, Nablus in 2008.

Utilising a variety of mediums, Ayasa’s techniques and materials include digital and free hand drawing, sketching and painting. Many of his digital projects were necessary as choices have been dictated to by the worsening economic situation and the high cost for materials and artistic tools, such as brushes, colours, oil and acrylic on large canvases.

His passion for art however has no limits, open to all forms and dimensions. He has said: “Art preserves my soul from coarseness. It moves me slowly but surely, almost invisibly, yet radically onward and upward. Its fuel feeds the fires within me and allows me to experience and express passion and inspiration. To me, it is an endless opportunity of moments and connections with inspired meanings.”

Ayasa is also a professional musician who plays the darbuka, aka a goblet drum. He is fascinated by rhythmic multiculturalism and diversity, with a specific passion for traditional folk and indigenous music.

Describing his love for music and movement, he’s said: “As such, rhythm is my addiction. I hear and watch all vibrations and hues of sound emanating around me. Drumming is like a primal, more guttural, unarticulated call that rises up in me an unleashed yet healthy expression, as well as the desire to unravel, to play, to fly, to pray.” He has performed in many shows in Palestine, Jordan, the UAE and Italy.

Artist Of the Month

Currently Ayasa is working as a freelance graphic and branding designer, with a focus on advertising and branding campaigns. This professional niche has seen him twork in the UAE, as well as in Palestine, Jordan, Romania, Italy and the UAE.

He is also involved with projects that open up dialogue and discussion concerning the Palestinian reality of land and peace issues. His focus is on the human being, the daily details of worries and dreams, frustrations and joys, life in general as well as the personal.

Through his art, Ayasa attempts to highlight the interactions and constant negotiations for the Palestinians; with the miseries, the nonsense, the siege, blockade, the apartheid wall, the roadblocks, the tragedies, the calamities, the racism, the right to land and property, private space, and peace.

Revolving around types and forms of artistic resistance, heritage and clothing, Ayasa has contributed to the Palestinian Cities and Women Project, and the Man of Jerusalem Project. Always he asks the existential ‘why’ of the wars and the dead. Why the occupation, the violence and lying? Isn’t life too short and none of us are immortal? Is it possible to live in peace?

He’s said: “I regret not having been too active with regards to exhibitions and shows. The art scene in Palestine is suffering from the daily miseries of the occupation, poor economic conditions, lack of time, all coupled with the lack of interest on the side of the Palestinian Authority to showcase artists and provide them with institutional support.”

Ayasa has exhibited in Palestine, Italy and the UAE.

This artist’s desire is to be in a large open space where he can offload the lines, ideas, and themes that linger in his mind and soul, to rendezvous with his many selves on a short trip and sit down and talk about a better future under a blue sky and warm sun. Looking forward, he wants to secure a scholarship for postgraduate studies in art.

To follow Zaid Ayasa on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zaidayasa/

To follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ZaidAyasaArtist

Yazid Kheloufi – Nahla Ink Artist (January 2021)

Marking the beginning of the New Year 2021, Nahla Ink is super glad to bring the works of the Algerian artist Yazid Kheloufi. He and I connected on Facebook and I fell in love with his work straight away; the poetry, the spirituality, the elegance and profound contemplation of the sacred as well as the reverence for the Arabic alphabet.

A versatile artist, his work includes etchings on clay, ceramic sculpture, paintings, installation, graphic design and photography.

Biography (Courtesy of the Artist)

Yazid Kheloufi is an artist originally from the region of Maghnia (Wilaya of Tlemcen) in Algeria, where he was anchored from an early age in a land steeped in history and mystical practices; these are the traces of a multi-faceted heritage, which can be found in his works, as he draws upon his roots to extract the beautiful, linking a great spiritual tradition to a culture enriched from various sources.

His work as a contemporary plastic artist, indeed reflects, like his spiritual practice, a certain maturity. The line dance and profusion of graphics (letters and symbols) inspired by Arabic poetry, as well as on a spiritual lineage, are a common thread in his artistic creation, integrating into an Arab literary heritage. The spellings and text complement each other and call on one another, managing to account for the intimate momentum that inspired the writing; the letters also register a spiral movement symbolising the movement of the soul.

Conversely, when he tackles the concept of emptiness, on a mixed clay support, he reveals a complex simplicity, encrusting modelled letters imitating the ancestral stucco, that of the Arab Andalusian masters; he then gives them a new more contemporary dimension. Whatever the medium, the purity and the power of Kheloufi’s work are such that the line seems to disappear, as if to go beyond matter.

Artist Statement (Courtesy of the Artist)

“Since my earliest age, I have been inhabited by letters and I have always wanted to understand the meaning of the wonderful Andalusian-style epigraphies; perched in the various mosques and shrines of my region (Tlemcen wilaya) that is rich in its civilisational past. I try to reproduce them in the ancestral way of the great sculptors of letters from the Andalusian era, whose names remain anonymous as their great artistic achievements were often attributed to the names of caliphs and Emirs!

“It is a purely personal involvement and a tribute that I wish to pay to these great figures of Islamic art. In my work I attempt to treat phenomenologically “the art and aesthetics of emptiness” as well as the poetics embodied in the alchemy of the “artist-instant-matter” relationship.

“The image, also, being of the order of the sensitive, pushes man towards materiality and tactility; while words go beyond these limits. The impression left by an image is above all sensitive, while the impression coming from words is abstract, emanating as it does from reason, soul, heart and the interiority of being. Everything has both an apparent image and an underlying image. The image of the thing is not limited to its appearance, it also includes its interiority; for that is its truth and meaning, joining in this the power of words.”

For more information about Yazid Kheloufi: https://yazidkheloufi.jimdofree.com/

Fathi Hassan – Nahla Ink Artist of the Month (December 2020)

Nahla Ink is chuffed to bits to feature the Nubian (Egyptian-Sudanese) Fathi Hassan as Artist of the Month of December, 2020. Thanks to the Sulger Buel Gallery and arts curator Najlaa El-Ageli for giving Nahla Ink the opportunity to share his artwork to coincide with a current online exhibition. His solo show, titled ‘Soul Taming’ will be virtually accessible until the end of the year. All the images below are works by the artist that form part of the gallery display.

Fathi Hassan & Soul Taming (Text Courtesy of Sulger-Bulger Gallery)

Fathi Hassan is an artist, a poet, a dreamer; but, most of all, he is a dynamic creative set on taming his wild spirit and wandering soul through his art, meditations and poetry. Hassan’s visual work pulls the viewer firstly with its bold lines, then the floating texts, figures and symbols. Once that information and layer is absorbed, his pieces translate into a higher level of alchemical synthesis. His articulation unto the canvas is a deep form of poetry.

Fathi Hassan, Crossing, 2020, Mixed media on paper, 189x139cm

Essential to his work is the exploration of identity, as he constantly challenges, superimposes, writes and links events, past and present, to contemplate possible futures and potentialities. Hassan’s diasporic adventure for almost four decades reflects the displacement and the journey between the different spaces, times, perspectives and memories. His creations also reveal a love and passion for classical music and Opera, wherein his lines translate into visual melodies of emotions. His attention to numbers, codes, letters and musical notes are also weaved back into his compositions reflecting a multidimensional orientation.

Fathi Hassan, Burhan, 2020, Mixed media on paper, 74x98cm

His tapestries can also be experienced as archival material containing delicate traces of his Nubian culture and its place in the Arab world, wherein the Arabic calligraphy intersects and blends into symbols. In some instances the letters and the words sharply cut through the Nubian-African heritage to suggest a struggle and the fight for domination and survival. This suspended state is a powerful reminder of not only the past, but also inherently of what is happening today politically, socially and culturally.

Fathi Hassan, Magic Window, 2014, Mixed media on paper, 150x100cm

Ultimately Hassan’ work is to record, store, archive and tame the memories of dreams, souls, life and desire. His quest to pin down a hybrid-cultural form of self and identity continues and is ever so resonant with what is happening now. His utilising of the desert and forest imagery is a tool to reflect upon the injustices and inequalities of the human condition and existential state of being. He also does a brilliant job in bringing forward a Sufi elemental landscape as well as responding to the more recent crisis relating to Covid-19, referring to the traumatic post-Arab Spring period, the rise of the conservative right in the West and the deconstruction of democracy.

Fathi Hassan, Polyphemus Foot, 2020, Mixed media on paper, 99x147cm

Artist Biography (Courtesy of Sulger-Buel Gallery)

Fathi Hassan (aka Akkij Fathi) was born in Cairo in 1957 to Nubian-Egyptian parents. His family were forced to leave their homeland of Nubia when the Aswan High Dam was built in 1952, flooding a vast area now under Lake Nasser. Whether in photographs, paintings, installations, drawings or, often, directly on walls, his texts are deliberately illegible intended to highlight the plight of lost languages and oral history as a result of colonial domination.

In 1979, Hassan had received a grant from the Italian Cultural Institute in Cairo and moved to Naples, Italy where he enrolled at the Accademia di Belle Arti and graduated with a thesis on the influence of African art in Cubism.

Fathi Hassan, Middle East, 2012, Mixed media on paper, 186x149cm

He was one of the first African and Arab artists to exhibit in the Venice Biennial in 1988; and, over the past 40 years, participated in numerous solo and group shows in Italy, Belgium, Denmark, Egypt, the United Kingdom and New York. For many years he has worked productively with renowned curator Rose Issa and currently lives and works between Edinburgh, Scotland and Italy.

Fathi-Hassan-Starway-to-the-Unknown-2020-Mixed-media-on-paper-190x149cm

Some of Hassan’s work is in the permanent collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum, London and the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington DC and Farjam Collections among many others. He is the subject of numerous publications and writings by major critics, curators and experts, from Rose Issa, Achille Bonito Oliva, Maurita Poole and Liliane Karnouk to Kathleen Goncharov, Francesca Petracci, Elizabeth Harney and Enrico Crispolti. He also features in the recent book ‘Lumieres Africaines’ published by Langages du Sud (2018).

About the Sulger-Buel Gallery

Sulger-Buel Gallery is an art gallery specialising in the contemporary art of Africa and its diaspora. Founded in 2014 by Christian Sulger-Buel, the gallery provides a focus for those wanting to explore one of the fastest developing, ground-breaking and important areas in contemporary practices — Modern & Contemporary African Art.

Whilst addressing a variety of artistic mediums including drawing, painting, sculpture and photography, the gallery is led by a diverse and international team of specialists. Sulger-Buel presents a dynamic exhibition program, produces innovative publications and offers consultancy services; visitors, curators and collectors alike can experience its cutting-edge shows at the London space a stones throw away from the Tate Modern as well as at international art fairs across the globe.

About the curator Najlaa El-Ageli

The ‘Soul Taming’ exhibition has been curated by Najlaa El-Ageli of Noon Arts Projects. She is a British-Libyan architect who in 2012 founded Noon Arts, a small private foundation, to explore the newly burgeoning Libyan arts scene and creative movement that had followed the 2011 Revolution. Its aim was to spot and nurture the work of talented local artists and bring it to the international stage.

After curating a number of successful exhibitions featuring contemporary Libyan art in the
UK, Libya and Malta, another big project came in 2015 when Noon Arts was commissioned
to curate the Imago Mundi Libya catalogue for the Benetton Foundation based in Italy. This
led to the publication of a substantial art book that travelled the world. And, soon after this, she began to liaise with other artists from the wider Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region that led to more shows exploring newer themes and turning to work as a freelance curator from a London base.

She has gone on to curate exceptionally well-received exhibitions, including: ‘Textural
Threads’ (done in collaboration with Arts Canteen in London), ‘Jewelled Tales of Libya’
(held at The Arab British Centre in London), ‘Pop Art from North Africa’ (held at the P21
Gallery in London and Casa Arabe in Madrid), ‘Waves’ (at Sulger-Buel Gallery) and ‘Retracing A Disappearing Landscape’ (this showed at the P21 Gallery in London, Casa Arabe in Madrid and Cordoba).

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For more on Soul Taming: https://www.sulger-buel-gallery.com/exhibitions/21-soul-taming-fathi-hassan/

To follow Fathi Hassan on social media: https://www.instagram.com/fathihassanartist/

For the artist’s website: http://www.fathihassan.com/

For more on the Sulger-Buel Gallery: https://www.sulger-buel-gallery.com/

For more on Noon Arts Projects: https://www.noonartsprojects.com/