This past Sunday, the North Carolina Museum of Art opened its doors to Far From Home.
This exhibit features the works of 20 contemporary artists from all over the world as they and their works make the transition from "home" to foreign shores. Kinsey Katchka, associate curator at the North Carolina Museum of Art and the curator of this exhibit, describes the showcase as "focusing on the artists' own narratives alongside processes or conditions such as displacement, separation and belonging."
Thus Far From Home mainly concentrates on the effect that a shift in culture has on the mind and soul of the artist. Ghada Amer, an artist who recently visited Duke to speak to Art History students, presents two of her works in this exhibit. The pieces entitled "Les Maries" and "Amalia and I" represent the artistic dialogue between Amer and fellow artist Reza Farkhondeh as they each apply their own unique elements to the work at hand.
Born in Egypt, Amer was sent to school in France at the age of 11 where she proceeded to spend the majority of her childhood. She then went on to receive a masters degree in painting at l'Ecole des Beaux Arts in Nice, enriching her fascination with the cross-cultural experience.
Amer's illustrious career in art began at the age of 17 when she experienced a period of intense depression. She was bed-ridden as a result of her grief until she discovered drawing-the sole form of therapy she claims was responsible for her recovery. Ever since this incident, Amer has seen her work as an outlet for her reservations with the world.
"I know before I understand," Amer said. "The art work makes me understand."
Femininity remains the main focus in all of Amer's work, a direct result of a past wrought with encounters of sexism. During her schooling in France, one of Amer's art professors very openly treated his female students as inferior and believed the tradition of painting to be an entirely male profession. Similarly, when Amer visited her parents in Cairo in 1988 she was intrigued by the aggressive adoption of the veil in the Middle East, a constricting accessory that hid the women of her culture from recognition.
But it was ultimately a fashion magazine that was primarily responsible for her ensuing obsession with the role of women in society and was what Amer claims inspired her "to make art." The magazine featured traditional garments of her culture absurdly sown together with western fashions, leading her to discover her signature medium of thread.
Most famous for her embroidery of pornographic images of women, Amer's work has always maintained a focus on the f-word she could not utter throughout her time in France: feminism.
With definitively feminine connotation, thread is inextricably linked with the female profession of sewing. Thus through her use of embroidery, Amer seeks to explore the place of women in the art world, allowing them the chance to paint with their needles. Her renowned pornographic prints layered over with intricate sewing patterns seem to return a sense of strength and sensuality to the exploited women of the adult industry, twisting the vulgarity of these scenes into more personal explorations of sexuality.
Amer has also worked in the mediums of landscape art and cinema, most recently collaborating on a film with Iranian artist, Reza Farkhondeh, entitled Indigestible Dessert, a political satire which Amer screened for Duke Art History students last Tuesday.
Amer said she has accepted her work as an indisputable product of her Egyptian ancestry, but she feels that both cultures of her upbringing have been valuable stimuli for her art. She added that she hopes viewers will appreciate her pieces as more than just the work of, what she terms, "the other."
"What is going on now politically is like a mirror of what has always gone on in myself because I am a hybrid of the West and the East," she said. "It's a clash between civilizations that of course don't understand each other. I've lived with these contradictions all my life."
In its abstract, yet intimate threadings, Amer's work rediscovers modern female sexuality, challenging the boundaries of both women in art and in society at large.
Far From Home will be on exhibit at the North Carolina Museum of Art through July 13.
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