Review of Betool Fekaiki's Works
(Tattooed Body)
Author : Salman Al-Wasity
Translated by: Dina Fadhil Faidhy
One who can take a look at Betool Fekaiki's latest works when entering exhibition's hall, can definitely feel that there is a "light" coming up from these works; or in other words from the figures that live in its spaces. These lights soon go through the heart to make us listen to Asian and Arabian music of "Nahawand" and "Saba" melodies, pointing at the same time to texts written for women lived within two rivers, or within two wars; or maybe more..
Distances were left between two wars or more, waiting for a poet or a writer to throw letters there, maybe to become a cover for those nude women whom were distracted by sorrows and defragmentation of days' pain, and it’s the same nude women who became lucky when covered by the artist's colors to make her feel warm and safe from cold loneliness when the beloved were gone, and wars drift people towards immigration to the distance.. and it's amazing how these colors mixed with wounds and scars to drink from, and then become the echo that repeats their screaming inside the recipient, to transform recipient into a visual reference travelling years and years back to a still wet traces longing for women fragrance to be touched.
In this exhibition, faces were absent, and the artist did not want women beautiful faces and features take away the textual center of the figure (the body).. these bodies have an amazing power to shorten, interact, then burst out these interactions and melt them into the place that surrounds them and produce images and stories to affect us after being reformed in such a tremendous way reflecting the inner soul of the artist and accompanied by her tender feelings. The recipient reaches these images and all his senses celebrate beauty action, in spite of grieve for women and their brutal actual reality in the artist's homeland and other Arab homeland.
This is why the artist Betool's women, capture who ever looks at them. They are taken by death and life sights.. sorrow and love.. the restrain to burst towards a world free of death scenes and eternal destruction. The artist's fingers tattooed them with seduction and that is why the recipient feel attracted when looking at them at the first time, fanaticizing the magic living in them. When the recipient starts to read the visual text, soon his senses touch their tournaments along time surrounds them in a way that shocks his or her heart. It seems that these tattoos have stored history of these women.. and here lies the beauty of technique created by the artist inside recipient's conscience, which is part of art's aesthetics, when painting inspires you a visual text to be set as prelude to another one, even more beautiful and at the same time, more articulated expression.
The method of shortening in Betool's work reached its peak in 2007-2009, and especially in many of this exhibition's works.
Faces, and body parts were absent; and the focal was the "body" as an essential artificial built. Paintings were built by the visual psychological text for these bodies, and most works present bodies filled with figures and sketch symbols that sometimes form triangles, rectangular or cubes. Even when those figures are irregular, they look like some figures of Sumerian and Babylonian symbols. They show visual pattern in Acrylic colors on papers, to be presented on glass hanged plates. In this way, works become special and equivalent to visual purposes. The recipient soon feels that these bodies are hanged in between heaven and ground; though they are nearer to ground due to the "place" action, as they are tattooed with scars not in heaven.. but on the ground.
The other special feature of these works is their resemblance to sculpture made on paper. This feature gives the artist's works another dimension. Sculpture as we know, depends on place atmosphere to be occupied where the block take place in the vacuum. As long as these works were presented on glass plates and have no perspective when were created at the moment of the artistic revelation; this feature involves visual elevations on bodies in order to discover their aesthetic composition such as their twists, gestures, and movement from the middle towards the outside limit, and again from the outside limit towards the middle.. then these compositions becomes the text that reflect theme of these works, and the moment of conscious compassion of the artist at the time of composing, or artistic creation of these works. The absence of the head or the parts in these bodies led to moments of silent and amazement by the recipient as if, the artist herself, meant the atmosphere of spiritual meditation; a revelation lived through moments of grieve, for these bodies. Accordingly, the black is the right color for such bodies to, and in a simultaneous way, feature the sadness of black.
In these works, the artist relies on color technique that differs from rest of exhibition paintings. The artist does not use color mass intensity or color crossed blocks, but otherwise, she uses textual color symbolism. She simply wanted to express the idea of the emotional content that brings up elevations to take us and through humanitarian history, back to hundred years ago. The artistic vision of each artist is nothing but transformation, (transform of sensual impressions received from outside, and produce other aesthetic forms leading to a new visual images), following interactions inside artist consciousness, this sensation is to be transformed and translated to sensed forms and symbols on a platform of painting, to be interacted then, by the recipient senses.
The artist presents "light" transparency, and a flow of color in such an accurate and coordinated harmony. Other colors do work for perfect color construction that depends on dark background like dark blue mixed with black brush strikes, or burned brown mixed with black and red ones. In some times, the artist is satisfied with solo color as the black or the burned brown, in some times cold blue. This construction of colors involves color contradiction, especially with hot colors in order to form the bodies, which led to an amazing event, I personally would call it (color sunrise), and that is why the recipient feels the light that comes out from these scars and towards all space that surround them.
This is what made the artist Betool Fekaiki special. They have aesthetic features that capture the recipient's heart in spite of their hidden sad stories of women through history, whom were suppressed by wars, political and social disorder that dragged women to backwardness, and made them live in closed civil and social lives.
In this exhibition, we find no faces for cities, or even their elements represented by doors, dooms and old windows as we witnessed in earlier works and exhibitions. Woman has become the whole city with its all details. Many years ago the artist painted woman coming out from city's curves; showing how cities can present their most beautiful forms. In this point, the artist was so close to the style of (abstract impressionism).
These works have abridged all cities wandered by the artist and memorized them in her mind. I wouldn't say only Baghdad and all its suburbs and streets, but cities and suburbs of Damascus, Amman, Cairo and Lebanon including their women. All these faces and bodies whether were for women or cities, have indeed shortened themselves to become the solo face and the only body for dozens. Therefore, we can't see clear features of these faces and accordingly, the body belongs to an anonymous woman, or simply "body". Is there anything more beautiful than this humanitarian perspective? The artist carries on and make us listen to colorful Baghdadian and Arabian stories, sometimes sad, but most of times exciting ones. The transparent grieve is converted to women whisper, and childhood becomes an aesthetic dream extends as a blue spectrum, or green grass careless of all time or place obstacles where evil resides. One of the amazing work with all its illuminated colors, features two girls carrying flowers and walk alone narrating exciting stories not paying attention to what is happening outside. They arrived safely with their flowers and that is the message most women and men should receive.
In these works we find a connection or resemblance between women bodies and flowers or trees. This can be witnessed in almost all stages of the artist Betool Fekaiki's work experience. But in this exhibition we find the bond that rises in such a strong way to resemble fires, and destruction that hit cities and take away trees and flowers. It’s a temporary ruin, that takes only a little bit of time for these plants to regenerate again, and again. The resemblance and connection arise here. Although of all destruction and fire flames that affected these bodies then distorted by scars, wands and burns, they are still capable for staying still and alive by means of place, then by time they grow and renew themselves.
There is a place connection among elements, like the city, women, and trees. Role placements are involved, and imposed by the embodied idea of the visual text, also the mental and the emotional response of the artist. Betool Fekaiki wanted to create the equivalent objective of aesthetic text.
In spite of all destruction and war dust that embody these figures, in sort of an oppressing way, one can still feel the light that lives in them. Drought of days and absence of clouds can be seen, but yet; there is greenness that imbeds it. Here, the artist has let the screaming to burst out of scars and bends of brush to let us hear strong echo of her works spaces. She paints a woman, and writes down her history through grieve, and in the same time she paints details of a woman's dream and feminine waves of her fragrance that reaches every place of this world being half day..
half night.
