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Al-Ahram Weekly
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Al-Ahram Weekly
Eyes wide open - Culture - Al-Ahram Weekly
Ancient Egyptian art has inspired sculptors such as Gamal El-Segeny, Adam Henein, Ahmed Abdel-Wahab and Hassan Kamel. One of the latest collections in this vein is the exhibition The Earth's Memory (15 June-7 July) by the young artist Engy Omara: 61 clay sculptures in various sizes. The gallery's largest hall felt like an Egyptian museum, where dozens of small and medium-sized sculptures are shown. On two shelves, many small pieces are arranged neatly just the way they would be shown in museums. 'I have always been impressed by museum exhibits. I wanted to create an atmosphere resembling a museum, which is where I usually spend my free time, especially the newly renovated Greco-Roman Museum in Alexandria,' she said at the gallery. Born and raised in Alexandria, Omara is a 2017 graduate of the sculpture department at Alexandria University's Faculty of Fine Arts. She started her career a year before her graduation and is currently studying for her Masters degree on Fayoum pottery. The artist's fascination with ancient Egyptian sculpture preceded her participation in the Aswan International Sculpture Symposium in 2020. She mentions her mentor, the late, prominent painter and sculptor Ahmed Abdel-Wahab, who sparked her interest in ancient Egyptian sculpture and clay sculpture. The art of Ptolemaic and Roman Alexandria is also a source of inspiration. Her debut exhibition, Terracotta, was held at Mulk Art Space in Alexandria in 2023. It followed a three-month workshop in Fayoum sponsored by Sawirias Foundation in collaboration with the Fayoum Art Centre in 2022. 'It was like a magical journey into a different universe, where Egyptian art and sites like the Whale Valley were great inspirations,' she said. The influence of the Fayoum mummy portraits and Coptic art are clearly evident in this work. As a potter Omara's visit to Fayoum was very significant as she spent time in the three main villages known for pottery: Tunis, Al-Nazla and Kom Ausheem. Each has its own techniques. 'It was there that I learned a lot about a legacy that goes back to even before ancient Egyptian times.' For the artist, The Earth's Memory refers to the history of all beings and fauna who ever lived on earth. 'The word memory also refers to my own memories and my short history on earth,' she added. 'Clay is associated with the earth. We were all created from clay. During the process of clay sculpture, I was overwhelmed by philosophical questions about creation. I am equally inspired by ancient Egyptian gods and goddesses. One god is Khnum, the god of fertility and creation, often depicted with a potter's wheel symbolising his role in shaping bodies from clay, which yielded amazing images.' The collection on show is divided into many series, each has a subtitle, such as The Owl, Portraits, Lamentation... Night's Mirror from the Owl series, the biggest piece on show, depicts a brown owl, in a long body, with its wide eyes and hooked nose. For the artist, the owl, which is a sacred symbol in Greek and ancient Egyptian mythology, is a mirror reflecting inner vision, intuition and wisdom. As a child, Omara loved to make moulds with colored play dough and build castles on the Mediterranean sand. 'I tried many materials, but ultimately fell in love with clay. One good thing about using clay as a material is the direct sculpting process. There is no medium between me and the clay, no tools — only my fingers. This is why it can absorb my true feelings.' Most portraits and self-portraits reflect an air of sadness and uncertainty. A self-portrait from the Lamentation series is titled Traces of Departure. It depicts a human face, eyes wide open, without a neck or hair, communicating feelings of loss, astonishment and the internal void. 'It is due to the shock of the sudden death of my older brother last year. It was not intentional. I realised later that some portraits reflect the position of my brother as he lay on his hospital bed for several days, his arms on his chest like a mummy.' The artist was also inspired by Neith, an ancient Egyptian goddess associated with war, wisdom and creation. 'Studying images and meanings associated with the goddess, I felt that she recreated me, that I wanted to rise again after the shock of losing my brother.' That is why the Amphoras series makes up a good part of the collection. They have many meanings, but they principally refer to women's bodies as memory holders. Each piece is a fusion of ancient amphora structure with the head of an animal or a birds representing gods and goddesses who have inspired the artist, such as Sekhmet and Anubis. 'Generally, I like the form of the vessel. For me, they are a symbol of femininity. Women are secret and heritage keepers, just like clay vessels,' she said. There is also a series of Canopic jars and strange creations representing reincarnation. Omara spends a great deal of time in her studio in Alexandria. 'I love to work for long hours. I rarely go out of my studio.' Each piece, she mentioned, is the product of a moment of meditation, part of an unwritten autobiography. This is proved by the huge collection on show, all produced in the past year. 'I have learned,' she said in her exhibition statement, 'that art is not just a product of a certain vision, but also a product of silence, meditation and a profound conversation between the material and the spiritual.' Compulsory Silence, a series of self-portraits depicting a small-sized face in greyish green, with eyes wide open and flowers instead of mouths. Each sculpture represents an open invitation to the viewer to contemplate the meaning of silence. 'I think I still need to develop the concept of vessels in my upcoming work,' she says. 'Actually, I haven't decided on my next project yet, but it could be a mixed media project. I like mosaic art, and that could work well with clay, as both are interwoven with nature.' * A version of this article appears in print in the 24 July, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link:
Ammon
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Ammon
Mexican Embassy commemorates 50 years of ties with Jordan
Ammon News - The Mexican Embassy in Amman hosted a reception Wednesday evening to mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Jordan and Mexico. The celebration was attended by Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Nancy Namrouqa, along with a number of officials, ambassadors, academics, journalists, and invited guests. On the sidelines of the event, held at the embassy premises, an art exhibition titled "Frida Through the Eyes of Young Jordanian Artists" was inaugurated. The exhibition was jointly organized by Yarmouk University and the Mexican Embassy. The exhibit features 77 works of art inspired by the iconic Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, created by more than 70 young Jordanian artists, most of them female students from the university's Faculty of Fine Arts. Mexican Ambassador Jacob Prado emphasized that the ties between Jordan and Mexico go beyond the notable development in trade exchange and the strong institutional framework; the true strength of the bilateral relationship lies in the bonds between the two peoples. He pointed out that in the past decade alone, around 100,000 Mexican tourists have visited Jordan. He also highlighted the numerous agreements signed between Jordanian and Mexican universities, covering various fields of scientific research. The ambassador praised student and faculty exchange programs, which, in his words, build bridges of understanding and friendship between future generations. He also affirmed that the artworks on display are a testament to the special connection young Jordanian artists have formed with Mexico. For his part, Ambassador Khaled Al-Qudah, Director General of the Americas Department at the Ministry of Foreign and Expatriates Affairs, affirmed the historical friendship between Jordan and Mexico and reiterated the two countries' commitment to pursuing peace and prosperity.
Time of India
08-06-2025
- General
- Time of India
MSU professor invited to international museum summit
Vadodara: A professor from MS University has been invited as a speaker for the international museum summit – Eurasian Alliance Initiative in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Professor Ambika Patel, dean of MSU's Faculty of Fine Arts and director of the Maharaja Ranjitsinh Gaekwad Institute of Design (MRID), has been invited to the summit scheduled from June 9 to June 12. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now She will be a panellist on the theme – "Creating Museum Cooperation in the Eurasia Region." "Eurasian region, characterised by remarkable cultural diversity, boasts rich international museum collaborations. This international summit is to explore a sustainable structure to initiate seamless exchange of innovative ideas and resources, promotion of cultural agendas in participating countries contributing significantly to shaping a vibrant cultural landscape across Eurasia," said Patel. She added that museums play a vital role in building relations between countries and cultures. "Across borders, museums and museum professionals interact with one another by making museums platforms for dialogue among people, cultures, and nations," she said.
Indian Express
10-05-2025
- General
- Indian Express
I went beyond the popular image of Kabir to create mine: Gulammohammed Sheikh
You joined the Faculty of Fine Arts, MS University of Baroda in 1955, within five years of its opening. Coming from a provincial town, Surendranagar, what was your experience like? It was amazing to be part of a like-minded community of artists and aspirants; to have the doors of our studios in the art school open, day and night. I had never imagined there could be a whole library full of books, only on art! The atmosphere in the college was liberal, which made newcomers like me feel at ease. Our teachers worked in the studios after class hours. We saw the seminal paintings of our teacher NS Bendre being painted. He gave demonstrations of oil painting and watercolour with such mastery, leaving us spellbound. Art History classes were conducted by artists themselves, except for Dean Markand Bhatt, who had studied it at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. He taught us Western art and aesthetics, while Bendre taught us Chinese art, and sculptor Sankho Chaudhuri, Egyptian and Mesopotamian art. You started your teaching career in Art History before you shifted to Painting. When I was a post-graduate student, there was an opening in the department to teach art history. The then Dean, Bendre, asked me if I would like to teach. It was a godsend offer as I was living on a paltry scholarship. I taught for three years before going to London in 1963. Upon my return, I taught again for 15 years till I moved on to head the Painting department. London played a role in igniting your interest in early painting traditions. The Painting Department at the Royal College of Art was adjacent to the Victoria & Albert Museum and students had free access. I used to eat lunch in the museum restaurant to avoid the bland fare in the college canteen, and on my way, I would see paintings in the Indian section. I was aware of the various schools of Indian painting, but a magical-looking Kota painting of a nocturnal jungle scene in the moonlight fascinated me. Robert Skelton, the Assistant Keeper of the Indian section, became a mentor. Writing my dissertation on Kota enabled me to have a closer look at the regional school of Rajasthan. During the summer vacation, I hitch-hiked in Italy to see the masters of the Renaissance. I was especially touched by the Sienese artists such as Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Simone Martini and Sassetta. For them, painting was an act of love offered with humility and passionate conviction. I found them close to Indian painting in sensibility. After finishing my studies in London, I returned to India, mostly travelling overland. The three-month-long journey evoked greater love for the wanderings than I was already prone to. The year 1981 seems to be seminal, as you completed several important works. Yes, in that year I showed with artists such as Bhupen Khakhar, Vivan Sundaram, Nalini Malani, Jogen Chowdhury and Sudhir Patwardhan in the exhibition we called, 'Place for People'. Each of us was involved in exploring and focusing on the world we lived in. In that sense, several works were autobiographical. In my case, Speaking Street recalled memories of my childhood in a provincial town. Following it, a large painting, titled City for Sale, dealt with the irony of communal riots raging at one end, and on the other portrayed a cinema hall audience, totally oblivious of it. The Tree of Life (1996), which you painted for the Vidhan Bhavan in Bhopal, was the first time you took up painting on such a massive scale for a public building. Yes, I had long desired to make a mural in a public space, after I saw the cityscape, Effects of Good Government, by Ambrogio Lorenzetti in Sienna. The mural in the Legislative Assembly was 31-feet high and 21-feet wide. The idea was to cover a cultural tapestry of India with its multiplicity and diversity. The central motif of The Tree of Life represents the lives of people, both past and present, including glorious as well as turbulent periods. Then, Kabir appeared in your work. The beginning of the 1990s was a period of great turbulence, which needed a healing touch. Kabir was the answer. Instead of using just the popular rendition of Kabir as a Vaishnavite saint, I also searched other images of Kabir as prototypes to create mine. The man who said 'tera Saai(n) tujh me', indicated looking inwards, instead of seeking an answer in the outer world. You started with a small town. Then, you entered the belly of a city, and then you moved to the world. In a chance encounter I found a medieval map of the world — the Ebstorf mappa mundi — which I used as a basis for re-enacting the world. In the 20-odd years, many such maps were made to reframe the world. The use of a portable shrine or Kaavad served as an alternative to the easel painting. Its format allows multiple stories like a picture book unfolding gradually. The recent work, Kaarawaan, at its core, holds the idea of a journey, wherein I packed my favourite characters from history, mythology and the world of dreams. I painted within it all the artists, poets and thinkers whom I admire. The intention was to paint a civilisational ark carrying a world of humanity in the midst of highly turbulent waters.
Indian Express
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
How artist Jyoti Bhatt questioned power hierarchies and chronicled his times
The visual language of one of India's most distinguished artist-pedagogues, Jyoti Bhatt, combined modernism with traditional idiom, as his engagements left a deep imprint on Indian art. In the exhibition titled 'Line and the Lens' at Latitude 28 in Delhi, Rekha Rodwittiya — artist and his student at Faculty of Fine Arts at Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU) of Baroda in the late '70s — has woven together decades of his art practice, reflecting on the evolution of his oeuvre and that of the Indian art landscape. In this interview, Rodwittiya discusses her fondest memories of her beloved teacher and her curatorial vision for the exhibition celebrating Bhatt. Excerpts from an interview: I have always said that while I was studying at FFA (1976-1981), Jyoti Bhatt was the only teacher who exemplified, through his teaching and conduct, a lived and practised understanding of feminism. He addressed his responsibilities of being an educator very seriously, exposing his students to varied areas of articulation within the arts – yet never preferencing anything as being more or less deserving of attention to curiosities. He has been a major contributor to defining the pedagogic content of the syllabi at the faculty, and with students from varied cultural backgrounds he insisted that an openness to diverse cultural practices was respected within the classroom. He loved to deconstruct methods and techniques to share with us, and was wary of anyone holding things as too precious to be questioned. All students were equal to him. He disliked any display of power hierarchy, and always stated that he learned from his students because their questions led him to new areas of inquiry. At a personal level, one of my most impactful experiences was when as his student, after a particularly gruelling submission session, he said to me that I could view critique as damning or I could view it as a compliment that indicated that people held an expectation of me. These works of the artist are known as the series 'Living Traditions'. This archive is hugely significant because it serves to document, what he himself refers to, as vanishing practices. However, for me this archive serves another less obvious factor of importance. The wanderings of his travel create this journeying back and forth between the many worlds of 'his India'. It positions his engagement with plural and parallel existences that otherwise get ignored. He is, however, never the outsider or the voyeur – he is within the images he takes despite his physical absence, because he has the connect of empathy that allows him to be the sutradhar of these other worlds. He brings them to you to also belong within. The camera therefore isn't a device to 'record' but to perpetual memory. Jyoti Bhatt is never shy of what constitutes his value system and therefore the personal politics that shapes his thinking. He grew up in Bhavnagar, where he was exposed to the changes India was experiencing through the Independence movement, and through the industrialisation that the British Raj had swept to our shores. Extraordinarily, he displays his political alertness at the tender age of 12, when he paints an image that references the reality of a lower caste Dalit man having to proclaim his presence to the upper castes by wearing a broom what sweeps away the imprint of his existence, so as to avoid polluting them even in passing. As an artist he continues to exhibit an informed understanding of how visual language provides a vocabulary that can be read, and which accommodates a commentary with referential indicators that are infused with specific meaning. We see this very clearly in the works he did in 1975-77 that holds the commentary of censure in which he refers to MF Hussain equating Indira Gandhi as mother India, during the time of the Emergency. Jyoti Bhatt has always been someone who discredits systems of elitism and hierarchies. He worked outside of any need to hold attention to any personal space of self-glorification. However this did not mean he did not see his art practice as holding relevance and belonging within the discourses around him. What he positioned was the idea of disseminating a work of art through an edition, therefore becoming a means and method by which his art could reach and belong to many people. He also strongly believes in the idea of democratising his art practice by keeping his prices very nominal and not playing up to the manipulations of an art market. Perhaps this is because Jyotibhai has never cared to be prescriptive. Respectful of the choices and functioning of other artists and art institutions, he nonetheless configures his own operative systems as an artist, to what his personal beliefs adhere to. Jyotibhai and Jyotsnaben's doors have always been open. When I was a student and on one occasion when I needed to attend a theory class, both of them babysat my infant son. It is a tradition within Baroda where the communication and relationship with students or young artists does not end at the college front gate, or at the exit of an exhibition gallery. Jyotibhai, in his belief of equal relationships, views his interaction with all whom he interacts with, with the greatest of openness and humility. There is never a time that I have visited him, when my favourite dish of Batata Poha isn't made and kept ready for me. This, I think, best exemplifies the platform of how he engages with those who visit him. His genuineness and his comfort with who he is, allows for others to find their comfort in their discourses with him.
