Portfolio : Rania Fouad ( raniafouad@gmail.com )
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In my work I am interested in the following aspects :
- Appropriation of traditional and cultural motifs. - Shifting Borders between cities, identities, societies and cultures. -Observing and reconstructing new meanings based on the way things might appear to us when set out of its usual context. -Create art works overlaid with the unique contour line of experience.
- Constructing a coded visual language to speak of my encounter with the other - Visualizing inner spaces into which we might reside and refuge.
General Statement : It all started when something has shaken up my habitual patterns. This state of being in-between, no longer able to get my old comfort from the outside but not yet dwelling in a continual sense of equanimity and warmth. I tried to be at peace with the open-ended tender place called in between , comfortable with uncertainty. By not knowing, not hoping to know, and not acting like I know ,I planned -over the course of three years- try do different projects that tackle this state of mind in different ways .
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Project no.1 JizĹ? on the wall
It is the simple idea of introducing one motif that looks out of context ,coming from a different culture (Japan) into the streets of Cairo . A quite indirect way to reflect on hard situations . After three years studying in Japan, I needed to find a way to reconnect with my city. This meant intentionally working with an inaccessible image like that of Jizo, (a deity of Japanese mythology) . I printed and painted its figure on the walls and trees of different neighborhoods .I intentionally employed the time-consuming process of gilding and mixing mineral pigments with nikawa (glue), following the rituals I learned in the techniques of Nihonga (Japanese style painting ) to force myself be there as long as possible , be present in the heart of these neighborhoods and study the situation . Over days and days, I created small, intricate images of an unfamiliar god.... I was appropriating a figure that I knew would be potentially problematic for many people, being a god that is outside both Christian and Muslim theology. There was a lot of misunderstanding and misinterpretations , but this was one thing I wanted to visualize as well. I spent my time painting but also talking to people , answering now and then their curious inquiries about what I am doing. Little stories happened around while working all day long . Time spent on the street was more important than anything . A video camera was turned on to record casual interactions . With these records I wanted to create a freewheeling film based on improvisation , spontaneity , and unpredictability. Film in which nothing is particularly desired and thus all outcomes can be perfect .
JizĹ? on the wall was first screened in Rawabet art Space ( Townhouse Gallery )on the 5th of June (2012 ) then in Gallery Misr June 2013 , VII Tashkent International Biennale of Contemporary Art October 2013 and Tokyo Wonder site January 2014.
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Statement
"Living there I had the feeling I existed in 2 different places ..my mind was going back and forth. In my paintings I was working as if drawing lines between here and there. I borrowed motifs related to Japanese culture. I used it in a different context , reflecting on the situation of being in between . Here I continue to do the same , not on canvases however, but on the trees and on the walls of the streets. I used the photographs I have been taking of Jizō since 2 years ago. An old Japanese deity whose statues are common sight in roadsides and grave yards . In Japanese mythology they say he protects women , lonely travelers and abandoned children (aborted fetuses and the miscarried). I called him God of small things like in the book of Arundhati Roi. In Cairo I dispersed photos of Jizō on the walls and trees of slum areas... Places of a growing population that has been abandoned –for so long- by others . My plan is to go astray , stay in one place for some time and go with the figure imprinted, painted, gilded on the worn out walls ,vulnerable to erosion and hundred inevitable layers of misinterpretations.............. . While working Jizō was destroyed many times so he never really stayed in the street for so long .. It is sad but I can understand . The effort done was not to please myself by leaving a nice durable artwork in the middle of the street but to stay open to the casual chances that might occur while I am painting it. My stubborn head urged me to restore the images every time it got destroyed .This however drew me closer to the heart of children those whom I learned had to earn their living working all day long in a factory .It was my pleasure that my presence ( and their curiosity) allowed them to get some rest ".
– جيزو على الجدار أستعير من المكان موتيفات ترتبط بثقافته و أدرجها فى سياق مغاير. " أرسم بأعمالى خطوطا وهمية بين " هنا " و "هناك، كنت أحيا هناك وأشعر بانتمائى لمكانين مختلفين .أنسجه من تأمالت ما بين بين . فقط أستعيض عن الكانفاس بالجدران فى الشوارع، اآلن بهذا العمل أكرر الشئ ذاته بجواره يترك المارون.أعتمد فى عملى على مجموعة من الصور التقطها لجيزو ؛ ذلك الكيان اليابانى القديم الذى تعد تماثيله مشهدا مألوفا على قارعة الطريق و فى الجبانات .دمى صغيرة و قارورات بالستيكية لمشروب لبنى مسكر ذكرنى هذا بعنوان كتاب كنت قرأته.. ( وفقا لالساطير البعيدة كان جيزو معنيا بحماية الر حال الوحيد و بحماية النساء و االطفال الذى تم التخلى عنهم ) بطريقة أو بأخرى " . للكاتبة الهندية أرونداتى روى "رب االشياء الصغيرة و فى ثنايا العشوائيات و الحارات رقيقة الحال التى تخلى عن اهلها "االخرون" أطلقت جيزو على جدران بالية و تركته هناك عرضه، االن فى قلب القاهرة حيث أسير .لمرور الزمن و عيون المارة التى تطمسه بسؤال مبتور و ذرات مترسبة من اإللغاز وعدم القدرة على التواصل
Link to watch the video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJez-3PhrQY
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Three prints of my JizĹ? analog photographs transferred on canvas covered with shell powder ,perfume , yarn , sand and glue . 45cmx 45 cm each. Exhibited in Misr Gallery with video
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Project no.2 - In Between
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Developed in Tokyo Wonder Site Aoyama:Creator-in-Residence (7January ~ 18 February 2014 ) . Work exhibited at the end of residency in open studio consisted of : - 4 paintings ( 73 x 61 cm ) upper side covered with moss - Checkered canvas in silver and white ( 73 x 91 cm ) Canvas was the screen to receive the projection of a video created along my stay between two countries : Egypt and Japan in the years 2013 / 2014
Statement: Between Ah and Oum uttered by the two muscular guardians standing at the entrance of Buddhist temple lies a kaleidoscope of life visualizations.
August 2011 When I entered the Zen garden of Daisen –in temple I thought I am encountering an installation that allows for interesting interlocution of sign system . Rocks are arranged on the intricate spiral patterns of gravel . In this space, a certain relationship has been made between "form" and "imagination". Signs belonged to it more than it has ever belonged to the real world.From the standpoint of visuospatial psychology the rock is not just a rock any more ; the articulation and the montage of the elements within the space provides it with different new identities .Ones that change according to the context . A rock can be a mountain , a waterfall , a river , a turtle , a crane , a cow , an island or an ocean . The whole space works as a receptive canvas , ready to host elusive visions and generate images that record human’s life experiences . For all that -confronted with the scenery - I knew I had to exert a lot of effort to decode the signs.
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January 2014 In my mind I need a Zen garden .. I need to put things into order . Find clearness in obscurity, create any comprehensible form for the totally incomprehensible situation I encounter every day. Wondering if there is a system -that functions – simmering underneath ;I sat in the temple confronting the checkered patterns of Mirei Shigemori , stitching a grid of my own .
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Recorded performance of me stitching grids in Tofukuji temple facing the Mirei Shigemori’s checkered garden.
Mirei Shigemori’s checkered garden
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Above: Patterns I stitched on muslin fabric while performing in Tofokuji temple . Geometrical grid in Islamic patterns is the underlying structure of the design process. It generates the spatial structure and works as a self-guiding method that help regulate the order of patterns and mediate between the two poles of order and diversity
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Screening in open studio -Tokyo Wonder Site
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Screened on a checkered canvas a video of a disconnected narrative ,streaming in continuous flux to reflect my mind state at the time: - Recordings I did of the weekly Friday demonstrations in Cairo year 2013 (taking no sides / all parties included ). - Recordings I did from inside Horyuji temple - Japan 2014 . - Recordings I did of the Tokyo demonstrations -Japan 2014 (The Japanese still struggling with their government to stop nuclear power plants) - Excerpts from Japan’s on-line streaming earthquake map . - Recordings of me painting dolls ( a recurring theme in my work ,almost equivalent to self-portraits)
Project was exhibited in : -Japan Feb 2014 in Tokyo Wonder Site-Italy
March - April in Accademia D’Egitto in Roma . Art event “ Carnevale delle Arti Visive Contemporanee”
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Project no.3 Haiku
Haiku is part of a this extended project called “ In Between.” Haiku refers to a Japanese poetic form used to juxtapose two ideas, create a leap between two parts by bringing about what has been called an "internal comparison." Haiku Link on Vimeo : https://vimeo.com/119625681 Passward : jisei
Medium : Rotoscope painting animation . Time of production : 2014 Duration : 01:53
Synopsis Hana to mishi Yuki wa kinouzo Moto no mizu.
The snow of yesterday that fell like cherry blossoms is water once again.
Film starts with a beautiful Japanese jisei haiku poem written by Gozan in the 18th century .Like the haiku , the film is an allegorical meditation on death. But also a layered interpretation of three interlinked narratives : an eastern haiku poem ,a western musical composition and a moving picture . All revolving around the same theme: The fragile transitory stage that lies between life and death . Swallowing pain , struggling, blooming within one's mind even if the body is withering . Film Structure: Based on word (image) /sound interrelated structure in haiku poems . Haiku poems have the 5-7-5 sound structure ; that is to say there are five syllables in the first line ,seven in the second ,five again in the third . Borders of sound do not particularly coincide with borders of word . Sound exists prior to the word (and thus to the image ) ,its meanings and its logic , completely liberated from its tyranny . Similarly in my work sound from Schubert's quartet was primarily used as autonomous units that existed prior to the work itself . Within three sound units/sections , images in the film seem to recur and repeat ( section one ) , settle in (section two ) or pass through sound unit’s confined borders (section three) . One doesn't know how the narrative starts nor how it will end and there is no solid story within each section . Film screened in the following venues -Beirut Animated (October 2015) - Wekalet Behna in Alexandria (August 2015) - Rencontres de l’Image / Institut français d'Egypte . (May 2015) ( competition : awarded Jury Prize) - Venice International video art, experimental dance and performance festival (November 2014) -Medrar 6th Cairo Video Festival (November 2014)
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Still images from Haiku animation
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Project no.4 Her Space
Series of paintings I did for women to explore and express their inner realities . 2011-2012
5 Panels . Transfer print and acrylic paint on canvas mounted on wood 130.3 h x 97 w each.
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Oil on wooden panel - 120cm height x 91 cm width
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Transfer print ,acrylic ,oil paint , silver leaf . 162x162cm
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Oil paint and acrylic on wooden panel. 182x 97 cm .
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Oil and tempera on canvas mounted on wooden panel . 130.3x 130.3 cm
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Acrylic and transfer print on canvas .130.3 x 97 cm .
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Transfer print,washi paper
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masking tape on canvas .53Ă—45.5 cm
Her Space painting series was exhibited in various venues in both Egypt and Japan .
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Project 5 – Seeing
One work consisting of 3 panels ,Left and right panels 162x97cm , Middle panel 162x162cm Oil painting ,tempera, and transfer print Concept :
Long time ago the monkey figure appeared in Zen paintings as psychological metaphor to express a mind state. Images of monkey in the forest alluded to that of a mind that jumps from a thought to a thought like a monkey jumping from one tree to another .
Photo of the work published in Synopses of Master's Thesis.- University of Tsukuba -school of Art and Design .
Work exhibited in Tsukuba Fine Art museum /Japan.
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Project 6 – Separate Architectures (work in process) -A rotoscope painting animation film based on the crises and atrophy of interpersonal relations between the self and the other. -The film is a non -static narrative of the real and the imaginary ,juxtaposes scenes from film archive with scenes from real -time documentary video shooting with a sense of visual poetry
- The working process is mainly experimental , crafted through individual work as well as a series of workshops that allow for people’s intervention in the proposed narrative
Painted frames from section 2 in film separate architectures based on Pina Bausch’s work “ Rite of the spring ” (Le Sacré du Printemps )
Painted frames from section one in film separate architectures , based on film Les silences du palais (Samt el qusur) .
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