Ghada Amer clearly has very strong thoughts on feminism and the differences between East and West cultures, and has chosen to express these through her art. However, I think she does it in a way that doesn’t force you to agree with her, or make it so that you will only like the work if you do agree. I think this makes the pieces very successful as they can appeal to a variety of people without putting them under pressure, and also because of the controversy covered in her pieces, more viewers will be drawn in who want to witness it. The mixed media of dripping paints and hanging sewing threads work well together as they don’t contrast each other too much but bring more texture to the work, as well as representing this role of femininity in society. The pieces first appear to almost be messy, with the outlined figures and variety of colours continuously overlapping each other, but instead draw you in more to this world of canvassed fantasy.
An example of this is a piece called “the dance”. Immediately, I was drawn to the very expressive faces of the females at the top of the piece. The drips of colours that Amer uses then begin to draw your eyes downwards, leading to other similar figures and more sexual scenes. The large amount of action going on in the piece takes away some of the graphicness of what the singular figures are in fact doing, and with the drips of paint and thread tangling into each other connecting the female couples together, replaces it with a sense of individuality and control, like a web of passion. It continues to draw you down, until all you are left with are vertical drips of colour on a white canvas.
In “Womens Qualities”, 2000, Amer adopts a slightly different style. Instead of repeating fragmented images, and overlapping, there is simply on image of a lady. She is positioned in a way that she is completely exposing herself to the viewer, but instead of seeming like she is offering herself to you in a sexual way, she seems to be inviting you towards her, asking you what you think of her. The large, bold drips of coloured paint give the effect of wallpaper, but this effect is almost immediately destroyed again by the graphic image behind. This doesn’t ruin the piece of course; it simply intrigues you more, wondering why she is there and what she wants of you, the viewer. It is strange and unusual how Amer makes the figure control the piece and the emotions of the on looking viewer.
“Eight Women in White” has a much different mood to the previous pieces. She has abandoned the usual bright colours and drips of paint, replacing it with dark shadows and smears. The women once again are showing sexual positions, but even thought the repeated image of the lady in the middle is looking at you, is presenting the viewer with her back. The mixture of this and the dark colours make you feel sad and wonder it is that she, unlike the usual women, wants to hide herself from you. The smeared paint adds more to this sadness as it is almost as if the colours bleeding is because tears have been dripped over the canvas.
Ghada Amer has influenced me to not be afraid of blending media or to be a bit controversial. She has also made me realise that although sometimes in art you really want to express your thoughts or opinions on a matter, sometimes you can be more successful by not forcing this matter on the viewers or trying too hard to make them agree with you.
Amer has been described as the “Egyptian Bad Girl”, but although she doesn’t desire to offend, most of her work does!
Sunday, 4 May 2008
Ghada Amer - Under Criticism
Despite her respect towards Islam shown in her work, Amer has not always been received well by Islamic communities. Many Muslims critique her work as being too suggestive for proper Islamic art, and feel that her work is more influenced by her Western education, with even her parents having a hard time accepting her controversy.
The role that women have played in the making of modern Egypt has been well documented. Towards the end of the 19th Century, the political and cultural revitalisation of Egypt, after centuries of oppression, began. Egyptian women began to be acknowledged as public individuals and their roles as others and wives were recognised.
However, Orthodox Muslims consider displaying the human image in any form unacceptable, so painting or drawing a nude figure of course is forbidden. The display of the human image is seemed as sacrilegious because it attempts to glorify the human figure, when it is only their God, Allah that should be glorified. However, as Allah cannot be presented as a form, appropriate Islamic art instead typically delves into abstraction and/ or calligraphy. Therefore, the suggestive content of most of Amer’s work goes against the very nature of proper Islamic art.
The role that women have played in the making of modern Egypt has been well documented. Towards the end of the 19th Century, the political and cultural revitalisation of Egypt, after centuries of oppression, began. Egyptian women began to be acknowledged as public individuals and their roles as others and wives were recognised.
However, Orthodox Muslims consider displaying the human image in any form unacceptable, so painting or drawing a nude figure of course is forbidden. The display of the human image is seemed as sacrilegious because it attempts to glorify the human figure, when it is only their God, Allah that should be glorified. However, as Allah cannot be presented as a form, appropriate Islamic art instead typically delves into abstraction and/ or calligraphy. Therefore, the suggestive content of most of Amer’s work goes against the very nature of proper Islamic art.
Ghada Amer - About Her Work
Ghada Amer meticulously embroiders the surfaces of her installations, sculptures and paintings. She uses sewing as a metaphor for womens work and is an act eternally connected to the ideas of domesticity and femininity. With this, she creates images of women in the act of pleasuring themselves or each other. Amer addresses the womans role in society and seeks to destroy socially imposed stereotypes. The source material for her imagery comes from pornography, but Amer uses the male gaze as a form of female empowerment. She aims to present a world where women can embrace their sexual potential and are able to make it about their own pleasure. She works by embroidering repeated fragments of images she has taken from pornographic magazines.
Her work brings up issues concerning the differences we place on craft and high art, on what is seen as womens work, of sewing , versus the male dominated world of abstract expressionist paintings.
Her work brings up issues concerning the differences we place on craft and high art, on what is seen as womens work, of sewing , versus the male dominated world of abstract expressionist paintings.
In the piece “Private Rooms”, Amer sewed excerpted verses from the Qur’an onto shimmery hanging satin garment bags. The embroidered sculpture, made of a soft coloured satin, reminiscent of a brides bed used in Arabic cultures, is composed of three repeated elements: a shelf, a shoe compartment, and a dress holder. She selected specific passages referencing women from a French translation of the original Arabic. By doing this, she tried to keep the sacredness and the literal meaning of the words chosen, and also test the boundaries between East and West. Her piece also relates to the way that the text is seen in a mosque, where you can’t read all the words on the wall, but see the beauty of them. By presenting the holy Arabic words in French translation, she creates a double obstacle that blocks English speakers’ access to the original meanings. In a New York Times interview she was quoted “What is going on now politically is like a mirror of what has always gone on in myself, because I am a hybrid of the West and the East. It’s a clash between civilizations that of course don’t understand each other, but I have lived with these contradictions all my life”
Ghada Amer - An Introduction
Since the 1970’s, feminist artists have been challenging the boundaries that divide art from craft, public from domestic, and masculine from feminine, by incorporating embroidery into their work. By taking this traditionally feminine and domestic form of creativity, artists have called attention to the complicated history of women’s needlework.
Ghada Amer was born in 1963, in Cairo, Egypt, but now works in both Paris and New York. Although Amer shares some of her feminist predecessors’ ideas, her works focus on the ideas of Western civilisations and gender ideologies.
A trip back to Cairo in 1988 provided her with inspiration as she saw how the veil had been pervasively adopted and how in fashion magazines, Egyptian veils were superimposed on Western fashions. This led her to work with themes of intersecting cultures and the woman’s position in all cultures. In Egypt, the veil can be seen as an instrument for containment of womans sexuality as well as a device for social control. Her work also has aspects of Islamic influence, such as the use of text or passages from the Qur’an but it is mostly concerned with women in a universal context. At the outset of her career, Amer reacted to the Islamic fundamentalism she was exposed to growing up in Cairo, later expanding to address the objectification of women throughout the world.
Friday, 2 May 2008
Facebook and Myspace As Mediums
For a long time, television and radio have been the leaders as advertising mediums, but recently internet spaces such as Facebook and Myspace have been able to add a more personal touch. Primarily, Facebook and Myspace were built as social networking sites, allowing you to have your own URL and build up a profile in different ways depending on the site you are on, but with their ever growing popularity, their potentials have grown too, with the added bonus of it all being free to users.
Previously, if you wanted to advertise something, you would have faced more of a challenge, for example, advertising in a local paper, putting up flyers, or, if you have the money, advertising on the television or radio. Now however, you can quickly advertise things by making groups or events and sending them out to friends or making it public so that anyone else on the site can access it as well. As an artist myself, this is an extremely useful tool.
It is now possible for a student like myself, to build up a public profile of my work and what it is about, and have it accessible to the world for free. I can upload pictures or videos of my work for others to see and am able to get feedback from anyone on the networking site, or, if I was exhibiting anything, set up an event stating when and where I will be doing this and invite people to attend. By doing this, anyone who accepts the invite will have it stated on their personal profile, which can then be seen by others who I may not know but who, if it is an open event, will be able to attend. This means that the word can spread further and further with no extra cost or hassle to myself. It also means that I can find out about events, usually local, that I may not have known about otherwise.
In conclusion, social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace, in my opinion, can be excellent mediums for advertising. However, it is recommended not to put up too many personal details, just incase you get a stalker!
Previously, if you wanted to advertise something, you would have faced more of a challenge, for example, advertising in a local paper, putting up flyers, or, if you have the money, advertising on the television or radio. Now however, you can quickly advertise things by making groups or events and sending them out to friends or making it public so that anyone else on the site can access it as well. As an artist myself, this is an extremely useful tool.
It is now possible for a student like myself, to build up a public profile of my work and what it is about, and have it accessible to the world for free. I can upload pictures or videos of my work for others to see and am able to get feedback from anyone on the networking site, or, if I was exhibiting anything, set up an event stating when and where I will be doing this and invite people to attend. By doing this, anyone who accepts the invite will have it stated on their personal profile, which can then be seen by others who I may not know but who, if it is an open event, will be able to attend. This means that the word can spread further and further with no extra cost or hassle to myself. It also means that I can find out about events, usually local, that I may not have known about otherwise.
In conclusion, social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace, in my opinion, can be excellent mediums for advertising. However, it is recommended not to put up too many personal details, just incase you get a stalker!
Tuesday, 29 April 2008
Gubbay As An Institution
Do I feel I've been institutionalised by my halls of residence, Gubbay Halls, known as Grubby Halls to those of us unfortunate enough to have lived here for the last seven months? Possibly. I am partly to blame for my situation. Naively, I sat in the comfort of my home, filling out the online application form, initially believing that we could in fact be living in the mansion cruelly pictured beside the description. This dream was soon shattered as I realised this was not the case, but I went ahead with my form, with the shining hope that I may be one of the lucky five with en-suite facilities. Of course I was not, but I had seen a few of the communal facilities available at other universities and presumed they would be the same, or at least similar. Anyway, September arrived and the car was weighed down with my possessions. I was on my way.
I will never forget that moment as we pulled up to the halls. I got out and looked up at the building above and became consumed by the grey, prison-like lifelessness that was Gubbay Halls. I looked around and could see everyone else unpacking their cars felt the same. I wasn't going to let it get me down thought as I was excited to see what my room was like and to get to know the people I would be living with. Together, my parents and I walked up the caged in stairs to my new, but thankfully only temporary home. The next ten minutes though were a complete shock to the system.
A fellow flat sharer began showing me around. First to the kitchen area, which already smelt pretty bad and had a serious lack of cupboards, with a grand total of none, and secondly to the bathroom. I'm not going to rant about this too much as there was nothing we could do but accept it, BUT, one room with two toilets, one shower, one bath and one sink, for thirteen (unisex) people to share with no windows for ventilation, is not right! Grinning and bearing it was the only option, and on the plus side my room itself wasn't a bad size.
So, seven months later, and with the end of my first year approaching, how has my life changed? My time in halls of residence were not what I expected but it has been a learning curve to say the least, with routines all in place. I have responsibilities here and for the first time, I have to look after myself. I wake up, make a cup of tea, breakfast, shower, tidy my room and take food out of the freezer to defrost if I need to. I leave and have to remember my key or I get charges. I go to the SU, buy some cigarettes and wait for the bus to take me out of the forest that is Trent Park and to the tube station. Depending on my day, I walk to uni, or I get on the tube and go shopping in London, or I get the bus and go to Asda if I need to go shopping or, more recently, I go to the Estate Agents to try and find a place for next year. In the evening I return "home", make my dinner, watch Hollyoaks then head over to one of my friends room and spend the evening with them.
The answer is , yes, I have been slightly institutionalised by Gubbay Halls as I am dependant on its facilities and we residents have to use our bedrooms also as dining room, studies, and lounges. However, if I went back to the moment when I was filling out that form applying to Gubbay Halls, I would still make the decision to live here as I have made some very good friends here and have had a good experience overall. I would still be hoping for the en-suite though.
I will never forget that moment as we pulled up to the halls. I got out and looked up at the building above and became consumed by the grey, prison-like lifelessness that was Gubbay Halls. I looked around and could see everyone else unpacking their cars felt the same. I wasn't going to let it get me down thought as I was excited to see what my room was like and to get to know the people I would be living with. Together, my parents and I walked up the caged in stairs to my new, but thankfully only temporary home. The next ten minutes though were a complete shock to the system.
A fellow flat sharer began showing me around. First to the kitchen area, which already smelt pretty bad and had a serious lack of cupboards, with a grand total of none, and secondly to the bathroom. I'm not going to rant about this too much as there was nothing we could do but accept it, BUT, one room with two toilets, one shower, one bath and one sink, for thirteen (unisex) people to share with no windows for ventilation, is not right! Grinning and bearing it was the only option, and on the plus side my room itself wasn't a bad size.
So, seven months later, and with the end of my first year approaching, how has my life changed? My time in halls of residence were not what I expected but it has been a learning curve to say the least, with routines all in place. I have responsibilities here and for the first time, I have to look after myself. I wake up, make a cup of tea, breakfast, shower, tidy my room and take food out of the freezer to defrost if I need to. I leave and have to remember my key or I get charges. I go to the SU, buy some cigarettes and wait for the bus to take me out of the forest that is Trent Park and to the tube station. Depending on my day, I walk to uni, or I get on the tube and go shopping in London, or I get the bus and go to Asda if I need to go shopping or, more recently, I go to the Estate Agents to try and find a place for next year. In the evening I return "home", make my dinner, watch Hollyoaks then head over to one of my friends room and spend the evening with them.
The answer is , yes, I have been slightly institutionalised by Gubbay Halls as I am dependant on its facilities and we residents have to use our bedrooms also as dining room, studies, and lounges. However, if I went back to the moment when I was filling out that form applying to Gubbay Halls, I would still make the decision to live here as I have made some very good friends here and have had a good experience overall. I would still be hoping for the en-suite though.
The Saatchi Gallery
I thought I'd talk about the Saatchi Gallery because, of those that I have seen, it has had the biggest impact on me. Now, this is a pretty poor statement coming from someone who claims to be an artist, but when I was told that my class was going there on a trip, I had no idea it even existed; unlike the Tate Modern of course, where everybody has head of it, even though, a lot of the stuff isn't even that good. Anyway, I'd heard of some of the artists exhibiting there so presumed it would be an alright trip so headed there with an open mind.
I turned out that it was brilliant! The pieces on show were so powerful alone, but exhibited together were awesome. It was interactive, as you could wander in between and around the pieces with masses of colour and texture all around. It made such a refreshing change to those many galleries where you watch group after group of visitors, standing in front of painting after painting, simply reading the information card next to it, looking at the piece with "a sudden understanding", nodding and moving to the next. Here, you wanted to get involved with the pieces, staring at the craftsmanship, and occasionally touching, when security wasn't looking of course.
I was completely hooked with a new outlook on art and where I wanted to go as an artist. Bit of a shame then when shortly after my visit it closed down after the fire in the storage warehouse destroyed many works in May 2004, and the court case of October 2005, putting the London shows on hold.
It is almost time though for the next Saatchi Gallery to open in its all new Chelsea home. Of course I can't wait to see it, but I also wonder whether it will feel the same as the original. The building itself, The Duke of York's HQ building, Kings Road, Chelsea, is pretty stunning with its architectural beauty. I can't help wondering though, if all of this new "posh"ness will take away some of the magic of the work. Hopefully not.
Until then, I will remain positive in my hope and very much look forward to visiting. This time though, I'm going to make sure I get one of those damn Saatchi Gallery t-shirts that I keep seeing on the arty Londoners that I wish I'd bought when I was there.
I turned out that it was brilliant! The pieces on show were so powerful alone, but exhibited together were awesome. It was interactive, as you could wander in between and around the pieces with masses of colour and texture all around. It made such a refreshing change to those many galleries where you watch group after group of visitors, standing in front of painting after painting, simply reading the information card next to it, looking at the piece with "a sudden understanding", nodding and moving to the next. Here, you wanted to get involved with the pieces, staring at the craftsmanship, and occasionally touching, when security wasn't looking of course.
I was completely hooked with a new outlook on art and where I wanted to go as an artist. Bit of a shame then when shortly after my visit it closed down after the fire in the storage warehouse destroyed many works in May 2004, and the court case of October 2005, putting the London shows on hold.
It is almost time though for the next Saatchi Gallery to open in its all new Chelsea home. Of course I can't wait to see it, but I also wonder whether it will feel the same as the original. The building itself, The Duke of York's HQ building, Kings Road, Chelsea, is pretty stunning with its architectural beauty. I can't help wondering though, if all of this new "posh"ness will take away some of the magic of the work. Hopefully not.
Until then, I will remain positive in my hope and very much look forward to visiting. This time though, I'm going to make sure I get one of those damn Saatchi Gallery t-shirts that I keep seeing on the arty Londoners that I wish I'd bought when I was there.
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