Ghada Amer

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Ghada Amer talks about her work at CCCOD, Tours, France (June 3, 2018)

Ghada Amer ( Arabic غادة عامر, DMG Ġāda ʿĀmir ; * 1963 in Cairo ) is an Egyptian artist. She works with different genres, the spectrum ranges from u. a. Paintings, sculptures and performances. Her central theme is the nature of women, their equality and female sexuality, also from the point of view of East and West. Ghada Amer achieved international fame in the mid-1990s for her erotic female motifs, which she embroidered on her paintings.

Life

Ghada Amer was born in Cairo as one of four daughters and spent her early childhood there. Her mother and grandmother sewed a lot that would later influence Amer as an artist. She comes from a very religious household. The mother finds Amer's sexual subjects offensive. Her father was in the diplomatic service. This enabled the family to travel abroad under the restrictive regime, which Amer saw as a privilege. The family traveled internationally, often to Morocco and Libya. She has bad memories of the wars with Israel in 1967 and 1973 , which she experienced in Cairo. When Amer was 11 years old, they moved to France, first to Nice and later to Paris . Due to her position as an outsider in the western world, she began early to deal with her cultural identity. She would not return to her hometown of Cairo until a decade later.

Her parents were very strict and made high demands on their children's education. Painting was a reward Amer was only allowed to do after doing homework. She finished school at the age of 16. She fell into a depression because she did not feel ready to study and also did not know which direction to choose. Drawing helped her during the depressive phase. Her parents wished her to study medicine, Amer then chose mathematics, but she failed. It was more by chance that she became aware of an art school, but did not pass the entrance exam and studied English and German.

In the end she was drawn to art and in 1986 she obtained a bachelor's degree in painting from the École nationale supérieure d'art de Nice in Nice. She tells in the retrospective that she probably decided on art because that was the only domain her educated father was not familiar with. In 1987, she attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston . In 1989 she graduated with a Master of Fine Arts from the school in Nice. This was followed by studies at the Paris Institute des Hautes Études en Arts Plastiques (IHEAP) in 1991. In 1996 she moved to New York City , where she still lives and works today. She was, she says, shocked by the prudishness in America.

plant

“I want to be known as a British male artist or an American white male artist, because they get a lot of attention. They don't have shows like 'Women Artists in the 21st Century'. "

“I want to be known as a British male artist or an American white male artist because they get a lot of attention. They don't have to do exhibitions like 'Artists in the 21st Century'. "

- Ghada Amer : Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring: Conversations with Arab Artists by Sam Bardaouil, Till Fellrath

Amer describes herself as a painter, even if she actually sees her strength in drawing. She describes daily painting as prayer and meditation, albeit not in the Muslim, but in the Sufi tradition. Ghada Amer expresses her art in a wide variety of materials and techniques. She mainly works with the means of painting, but also includes drawing, textiles, embroidery, sculpture, ceramics, bronze sculptures, performance and installation in her work. In her choice of working techniques, she often focuses on supposedly women's tools, such as ceramics and embroidery. She explains her diversity as follows: “Every medium that I explore brings a new dimension to my work. Every medium makes you think differently and take a new approach. ”( Ghada Amer : loosely translated) Since the 1990s, it has also been expressed in garden design. There she works with letters and symbols made from natural materials. She has her own claim that her works of art should be "beautiful". You can't tell by looking at her art that it comes from a Muslim woman.

She annoyed the disrespectful attitude of the West when he labeled the art of the Orient as purely decorative, while he presented his own work as art. She rejects categories such as "female artists" or "Muslim artists" because they create groups and marginalization where none exist. She is also outraged that painting can be seen as the only true form of art. From this indignation she draws the strength to work:

"Rage is my artistic fuel."

"Anger is my artistic fuel."

- Ghada Amer : Interview 2017

Amer has also been working with Reza Farkhondeh since 2000. For about five years they released their joint works under the label RFGA , which was supposed to be a joking reference to a secret military organization. Now they both sign with real names.

feminism

Even after she finished art school, her works were about love and women, albeit without any sexual representation. Amer sharpened the focus of her work as a young artist during a visit to her hometown of Cairo. After President Anwar al-Sadat was assassinated, Islam became increasingly prevalent there. The realistic depiction of the human body was forbidden because it would take the artist in the role of God. This implied imitation of creation is an interesting concept for Amer. The image of beauty and the role of women were increasingly suppressed in the country. Veiled women were promoted in the media. Advertisements from large fashion houses have been retouched accordingly . Amer was fascinated by this manipulation. She decided on a clearly feminine art and chose the "feminine" technique of embroidery . She wanted the threads to look like paint. Amer began to work with pictures of women from magazines and combined painting with textile art . In this context, the work Five Women at Work comes from her first period in 1991/92 . Figurative embroidery describes the woman in the home environment. Amer also embroidered texts from Arabic culture. For example, she uses all passages of the Koran that have to do with women in her work Private Rooms (1998).

"I never thought it was fair that anatomy decided what my brain was fit for."

"I have never considered it fair that anatomy should decide what my brain should be made for."

- Ghada Amer : painting “Women in White” (2016)

Her female nudes, which she depicts using different techniques, often resemble the common beauty ideals of the fashion industry. They pose in provocative, sometimes even explicit positions. The seemingly pornographic work is intended to point to the oppression of women and illuminates female sexuality from a feminist perspective. For the pornographic depictions, Amer uses the stereotypes of white, western women as a model because they unite all groups of women. Amer also understands her engagement with love and sexuality as an act of rebellion against her parents' home, in which these topics were taboo. She says she looks at her pictures with painful intimacy. She would have preferred to live out her sexuality instead of processing it in pictures. Threads hanging down on the canvas play with these clichés, form hair or semi-transparent curtains. Amer also describes it as “must have a lot of thread so that I can drip. [...] This is my (Jackson) Pollock . "( Ghada Amer :)

Material clay

The artist has been working with clay since 2014 , which she would later call her second love, after painting. She does not consider clay to be fragile, but rather to be one of the strongest materials man has created. It is not for nothing that there are clay evidence from prehistoric times. In her studies at the end of the 80s she decided against ceramics because she thought pottery was "uncool" at the time - literally in 2017. In 2008, Amer wanted to deal with the medium of clay, but found no place where she could experiment. Therefore she started sculptural work with resin, steel and bronze. At first she made clay models for her steel sculptures, but that soon frustrated her. It developed further into a freer formal language. Her love for sculpture grew since 2010. She started with abstract colored clay sculptures with rough contours. During a stay at the Greenwich House Pottery in New York from 2014 to 2017, the style expanded to upright clay plates with female motifs. In 2017 she worked at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Wisconsin , USA. In 2018 she also worked at Studio Cerámica Suro in Mexico. When creating sculptures, she considers her small body size and lack of muscle strength to be a disadvantage, because she always needs help when "you want to make something that is bigger than a bowl." ( Ghada Amer : Interview 2017)

interpretation

Working with opposites defines Ghada Amer's oeuvre . As an artist, she repeatedly explores the dichotomies of the constantly changing world. Amer takes traditional ideas of cultural identity and religious fundamentalism and then turns them into their opposite. She confronts hostility and finality with the emotions of longing and love.

Amer's work is seen as a modern look at the female nude. Their work is driven by a desire that can never be satisfied. By depicting explicit sexual acts with the delicacy of a needle and thread, the work attains a tenderness that no longer allows objective observation. Other voices accuse her of turning women into objects because she uses images from porn. Amer contradicts these allegations with her position that women should take pride in being sexual beings. Sexuality lies in the human nature.

"I believe that all women should like their bodies and use them as tools of seduction."

"I think all women should like their bodies and use them as a means of seduction."

- Ghada Amer : Cheim & Read

Exhibitions (selection)

Solo exhibitions

  • In 1998, Amer first exhibited in Egypt, which made a strong political statement. It was an emotionally intense and shameful situation because the audience was embarrassed by her work.
  • 2008: Ghada Amer: Love Has No End, Brooklyn Museum of Modern Art, USA
  • 2011: Ghada Amer: 100 Words of Love, Cheim & Read Gallery, New York, USA
  • 2012: Ghada Amer, Musee d'Art Contemporain de Montreal , Montreal, Canada
  • 2013: Référence à Elle, Kukje Gallery, Seoul, Korea

Source:

Group exhibitions

Gardens

Source:

literature

  • C. Okeke-Agulu: Politics by Other Means: Two Egyptian Artists, Gazbia Sirry and Ghada Amer . In: Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism , VI / 2, 2006, pp. 117–149
  • Ghada Amer Ceramics . Distance Verlag, Berlin, 2018, ISBN 978-3-95476-260-6 , English
  • Maura Reilly: Ghada Amer . Distributed Art Pub, 2010, ISBN 978-0-9800242-0-3
  • N. Guralnik, M. Omer: Ghada Amer: Intimate Confessions . Museum of Modern Art, Tel Aviv, 2000

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Ghada Amer: The Breakthrough. September 13 - December 3. In: Georgia State University. Georgia State University, accessed August 28, 2019 (English, Captcha required).
  2. ↑ a b c d Ghada Amer Ceramics. In: Distance Verlag GmbH. Christian Boros, Uta Grosenick, accessed August 29, 2019 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Meeka Walsh, Robert Enright: The Thread of Painting . An interview with Ghada Amer. In: Meeka Walsh (Ed.): Border Crossings . Cultural Magazine. 28, Number 3, Issue 111. Monumente Publications, August 2019, ISSN  0831-2559 (English, cheimread.com ).
  4. ↑ a b c d Michael Slenske, Molly Langmuir: Who's Afraid of the Female Nude? In: New York . New York Media, LLC, April 16, 2018, accessed on August 31, 2019 (English, excerpt as PDF: https://www.cheimread.com/imgs/new_york_magazine_04_16_2018_short_print.pdf ).
  5. ↑ a b c d e f Lamia Balafrej, Toby Cayouette from Dictionnaire universel des créatrices : Ghada Amer. Egyptian painter and embroiderer. In: Aware Women Artists. Camille Morineau, accessed August 29, 2019 .
  6. ↑ a b c d Ghada Amer. In: Kewenig Galerie GmbH. Justus F. Kewenig, accessed on August 30, 2019 .
  7. ^ Ghada Amer. In: artnet AG. Artnet Worldwide Corporation, accessed August 28, 2019 .
  8. ↑ a b c Myrna Ayad: Ghada Amer, feminist provocateur of Middle Eastern art, on experimenting with an ancient medium. In: Ocula. Ocula Ltd, November 24, 2015, accessed August 29, 2019 .
  9. ↑ a b c d e f g h Ghada Amer - Why I Create. In: Phaidon website. Phaidon Press Limited, November 1, 2017, accessed on August 30, 2019 (English, available as PDF at https://www.cheimread.com/imgs/phaidon_11_01_2017.pdf ).
  10. ↑ Anna Seaman: Egyptian artist Ghada Amer talks of 'Earth.Love.Fire'. In: Ocula. Ocula Ltd, December 31, 2015, accessed August 29, 2019 .
  11. ↑ a b c Seph Rodney: How Ghada Amer Uses Seduction to Expose Sexism. In: Hyperallergic. Hyperallergic Media Inc., May 10, 2018, accessed on August 28, 2019 .
  12. ↑ a b Kewing. Ghada Amer. Ceramics. In: Ocula. Ocula Ltd, accessed August 29, 2019 .
  13. ↑ a b c Ghada Amer. April 5 - May 12, 2018. In: Cheim & Read. Accessed August 28, 2019 .
  14. ↑ a b c d e f g h Bio. Public collections. In: Homepage Ghada Amer. Accessed August 28, 2019 .
  15. ^ Announcement on the exhibition ( Memento of October 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on October 2, 2014.
  16. ^ Gardens. In: Homepage Ghada Amer. Accessed August 28, 2019 .


personal data
SURNAME Amer, Ghada
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Egyptian artist
DATE OF BIRTH 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH Cairo