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Al-Ahram Weekly 26 Aug. - 1 Sep. 1999 Issue No. 444 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 26 Aug. - 1 Sep. 1999 Issue No. 444
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Focus Culture Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters
Painting the psyche
By Youssef Rakha
Much modern art, instead of depicting physical reality, set out to retrace the hidden paths of the psyche, often in unpredictable and inventively regenerative ways. For professional artists -- from the pioneers of European modernism on -- this process was normally preceded by the struggle to master the established techniques prior to departing from them. Giving way to the psyche is not the prerogative of professional artists alone, however. And to this latter fact the Cairo's Children Exhibition, which opened last Sunday in the Townhouse Gallery, abundantly testifies. Albeit involuntarily, children too abandon accurate representation of the external world in favour of an impassioned expression of their innermost fears and desires.
It is true that most of the work was triggered by the desire to depict one subject or another -- figures and/or faces, buildings, alleyways and backstreets, playgrounds and beaches, trees, boats, a garden or a vase full of flowers -- but it is equally important to realise that these subjects served ultimately as pretexts for a creative exploration of the play of line and colour, resulting in an always vital, often poignant and sometimes striking array of paintings.
"Although their surroundings are predominantly grey," explains Aliaa El-Gereidi, the young artist who, with Sameh El-Halawani, conceived and carried out this impressive project, "their work is astonishingly rich in colour. Its their hunger for colourfulness, I think, that explains this paradox. Why else would they paint their surroundings, which in reality suffer from an abject poverty of colour, in these bright shades?" Some paintings, indeed, present landscapes that could not possibly belong to Cairo. A perfectly smooth motorway with nothing but motorbikes, for example, has wide stretches of a rich, soothing green on either side of it. Another, offering a view of conventional wooden shutters, turns its subject into what looks like a butterfly by virtue of the distortions in perspective and the flowery colour scheme. "You can easily see they have completely transformed them, and they managed to do this so inventively."
The notion of art in society has enjoyed a tremendous vogue in alternative and experimental circles in recent years. Though often met with scepticism, the efforts of artists and intellectuals to bring the creative perspective into social development, engaging the imagination as well as the intellect of the disinherited and the dispossessed, have sometimes realised their objectives.
El-Gereidi and El-Halawani had originally envisaged their project as an art-in-situ workshop restricted to the popular district of Misr Al-Qadima. Children aged 10 to 15 were invited to paint the walls of their own buildings, the culmination of the workshop being a more colourful cluster of alleyways, to which the imagination of its young inhabitants had made a palpable contribution.
Funded by the Coptic Evangelical Organisation for Social Services, the two struggling artists encountered little if any resistance, and brought their vision finally to light. "But then we thought of extending the project to other districts," El-Gereidi resumes, while El-Halawani places himself at the centre of the circle of children, explaining to them what the events of the previous evening -- the opening of an exhibition of their own work -- really meant. "We had approached William Wells, owner of the Townhouse, and he encouraged us. Through him we supplemented funds from the Evangelical Organisation with Pro Helvetia support. Beginning in July, children from Zeinhom, as well as some of the poorer districts in the downtown area, joined those from Misr Al-Qadima."
Supervised by the two artists, the children spent two-hour sessions in the gallery, twice a week. That the project achieved the desired benefit, both at the artistic and the human level is evident not only from the testimony of such established artists as Mohamed Abla, another art-in-society activist, but from the way the children listen to El-Halawani, the interest, pleasure and pride they invest in their newly discovered roles as agents of the creative process and human beings whose views are taken seriously by adults.
In fact one has the impression that it was El-Gereidi and El-Halawani's open-minded and informal approach, their emphasis on dialogue and their insistence on viewing art as a social activity, among others -- rather than turning it into the mouthpiece of a sociopolitical utopia or presenting it as an absolute value in itself -- that enabled the children to express themselves so effectively.
At first sight the paintings, with their expressive vitality and evocative simplicity, may seem cheerful, but on closer inspection they reveal sombre resonances -- an interminable series of barely discernible anxieties. Some of the faces, for example, seem about to pop out of their frames, intent on evil and destruction. One doll-like figure is disfigured in such a way as to imply the weakness and helplessness of the female of the household. Even in the brightest of playgrounds, the expressions on the faces of the children suggest a stifling frustration. The imaginary realisation of a normally repressed desire -- for colour, for the playground -- is made to reflect on the unhappy situation that produced it.
With their artistic activities, however, the children are happy enough. El-Gereidi is careful to point out that the purpose of the project is not artistic training, but rather to enable the children to express themselves and make art part of their lives. Yet a passing remark by one of the children, Shawkat, has made her realise the importance of the workshop: "You have adopted me artistically," the boy declared. "And I want to grow up to be an artist."
"Whether or not the children will grow up to be artists is a question which only the future will resolve. But it makes you think, a remark like this coming from a child. It means that something has really happened, that this work is really affecting their lives."
That they have benefited, from a human and social standpoint, is beyond doubt. They are all eager to resume their involvement in the workshops, and El-Gereidi and El-Halawani are exerting themselves to keep the project alive. Their full-figure portrait, which hangs near the entrance, however, should be reward enough.
