EGYPTIAN ARTIST NOT FEMINIST BUT KNOWS THE PAINS OF PATRIARCHY

                      EGYPTIAN ARTIST WITH INSIGHTS ON PATRIARCHY

By Margaretta wa Gacheru

Egypt-born Souad Abdel Rassoul may have her art studio in Cairo. But ever before she met and married the then Nairobi-based artist Salah el Mur, she’d adopted Nairobi as her second artistic home.

Souad has had several exhibitions with Salah in Nairobi since 2014, and several group-shows as well. But her appearance last Wednesday, June 23^rd at Circle Art Gallery marked the opening of her first solo exhibition in Kenya’s capital.

‘Behind the River’ is a grand departure from her previous presentations in Kenya, although there are echoes in several of her works from her days of doing paintings inspired by her fascination for books filled with maps and anatomical parts.

                                                           Souad's Man Tree 

Her style has been described as a blend of both the abstract and figurative. But I would add that she (having studied art history through to a Ph.D) also has a surrealist touch. It is apparent in works like ‘Bull Eyes’, ‘The Hunt’, ‘Masquerade’, and ‘I have mouths that never talk’.

In the video accompanying her show, Souad refutes the claim that she is a feminist artist. Instead, she explains that her paintings derive from her personal experiences of the constraints and restrictions that she has encountered as a woman in society. They are illustrated in a work like ‘Men Tree’ where the woman stands next to a tree whose branches are tipped with the heads of judgmental men.

Souad's Bull Eyes

And while she never makes reference to Frida Kahlo, she like the acclaimed Mexican artist, also paints about her emotions and personal experiences. And like Kahlo, her art is highly symbolic, revealing a soulful yet cryptic language all her own.

In fact, Souad’s art is seriously autobiographical. For instance, more than half of her paintings contain a woman dressed in a white transparent gown, implying that she’s both covered, yet unprotected from the gaze of men’s prying eyes.

Souad is also a storyteller. In a work like ‘First Date’ one can imagine she’s describing her first awkward date with Salah [or someone else]. Following along from that is ‘Waiting’ in which the same two people are seated at a table, socially distanced and separated by a beautiful tree of hope.

Carrying on with that story are paintings filled with internal concerns of the woman who asks, ‘Who is this man?’ Her answer seems to be reflected in the work ‘Confusion’ in which the woman is of two minds, literally represented by two disembodied female  heads.

                                                                  Souad's' Like a Lonely Owl

But then, Souad’s art often reveals the woman’s encounters with harassing men symbolized in bestial forms. They may be an aggressive bull as in ‘Bull Eyes’ or an octopus with probing hands as in ‘The Hunt, or even a crocodile as in ‘Nile Crocodiles’ wherein the woman sits regally on a rock in the river; yet the river is infested with crocs that are circulating around her menacingly.

Souad’s preoccupation with the restrictions that society imposes on women is further seen in a works like ‘Men Tree’ and ‘Like a Lonely Owl’ where the woman stands beside trees having branches with judgmental male-tipped heads. And in her ‘Lonely Owl’, the woman’s only ally would seem to be an owl perched atop one trees. Yet in some cultures, the owl is a symbol of death while in others, it’s a symbol of wisdom. Its significance is ambiguous like the transparent gown which covers but doesn’t protect.

The fact that Souad sees the plight of the woman as patriarchal and systemic rather than simply her problem alone is apparent in a work like ‘Dreamers’. In it there are four women lined up in a row. They’re covered in transparent gowns but still they are covering their private parts while three men’s heads are aligned above them, as if they hold the power over the women standing below.

                 Souad Abdel Rassoul with her 'Nile Crocodiles' at Circle Art Gallery, Nairobi, 7 July,2021

Finally, one thread that runs through many of Souad’s paintings is the river. Having grown up beside the River Nile, she says she sees it both literally and figuratively as a giver of life and a symbol of freedom that she identifies closely with it. That personal identification is apparent in paintings like ‘Crossing the river’ and ‘The River’, both of which reflect her appreciation of woman as the giver of life and fertility.

Ultimately, Souad is a clear-eyed observer of women’s situation within a patriarchal system. Yet she also affirms her life-affirming identification with the river which, for her is alive, ever-changing and ever new.