For decades, Sudanese artists have been questioning the notion of identity. Whether in personal scopes or in larger contexts relating to society and the country as a whole. Whether through the explorations of the artists behind the Khartoum School, or the generations following them who took upon dismantling what we mean when we say the word identity.
In more contemporary contexts, artists have been elaborating further on the subject with depth to more personal aspects of their lives and their surroundings. Two of those artists, Wafa Salah and Usra Hamza came together to create “Identity of Soul” exhibition at the French Institution gallery in Khartoum in November 2022, where they both took upon the search of identity of humans in relation to their surrounding environment. The exhibition combined their work in a form to question how our souls are affected by what we go through in life, what we choose to believe in, and what we deal with on a personal and everyday level. This powerful and fresh duo was initiated by gallerist Mustafa Mojo from Mojo gallery, as he spotted the resemblance and correlation between the two artists’ work and proposed the exhibition to the French Institute as part of their ongoing partnership since 2019.
Between the printmaking of Wafa Salah and the bold figures and palette of Usra Hamza, the exhibition at a first glance seemed to radiate colour and contrast. Although the exhibition consisted of a big number of artworks between the two artists combined, it appeared cohesive through the visual links within the artworks. On a closer look, Wafa’s printmaking techniques incorporated within her paintings have added a level of detailing enriching the stories she was telling through the artworks. A recurrence of animal prints, plants, and female figures is dominating the compositions and mostly forming the background for the main subject. Birds and crocodiles were of stronger presence in Wafa’s printing, two animals that are often referenced in many Sudanese artists exploring local contexts and environments.
In my opinion, Wafa was confident within her printmaking forming a visual language that can be looked upon in different layers of interpretation. One of the artworks combined prints of storks, elephants, plants, and an angelic female figure placed within rectangular shaped spaces in the background forming what seems to be a flat based landscape. The very simple yet smart placing of those items has created some sort of a scene from a magical or fictional story.
On the main wall of the exhibition hall facing the entryway, laid the work of Usra Hamza in smaller sizes paintings of mostly expressionism figuration. Usra, a young self-taught artist has shown a great scale of growth in the past year or so, with her focus on what seems to be a genderless figure with distinctive features and limbs, constantly seated or crawled upon its body. The artworks were very strong and at times slightly uncomfortable to the viewer. That, I believe is due to what the artist is trying to convey through her work, as she mentioned to me that her art is a continuous process of attempts to understand her own self and soul. She uses those figures to try to understand her own thoughts that she cannot express with words, and like any artist who takes that path, the outcome is often puzzling to the viewer yet intriguing.
The exhibition was titled based on the fact that both artists are on a search of a visual translation to the different states of the soul, whether it’s happiness, sadness, remorse, or other emotions that are in one way or the other translated to physical motions with our hands and body parts.
[ Identity of Soul came from putting together the invisible soul and the identity that is reflected in physical formation.] Usra Hamza.
Although the artworks looked responsive to each other visually in the exhibition and from a distance, individually, I think they were different in context in a way that compliments one another. As Wafa’s artworks were more of a projection of an exterior environment that we as humans live and interact with, Usra’s work was form an internal dialogue that can only be heard through an open heart and a wide mind that questions existence, relationships, and personal thoughts. A powerful combination that contains a personal experience that many could and have related to.
