Spring 2010
May 2010
Invisible Messages
Samia Abdulrazzak Engineer
Solo exhibition
8 May 2010
Courtyard Gallery Bahrain
Samia Abdulrazzak Engineer
Solo exhibition
8 May 2010
Courtyard Gallery Bahrain
FOR HER, for every woman, for the artistic hand, for the gifted skill, for every mother, for mother nature, for anything that could be deemed feminine, grandiose, majestic and mythic, for female consciousness, for artistry and eternity…. A cluster of signifiers endowed with female souls that call for justice, equality and peace and everlastedness…. Every she/her presence should be thankful to the she/ her spirit that sacrificed the voice of her passion as well as the artistic playfulnesss of her magic hands and touches to invade the space of male consciousness and perception so as to portray their discriminatory representations of the female plight and dictated existential conditions to uncloak, (paradoxically by perusing the metaphor of the veil and the cloak), and to eventually liberate, (paradoxically by exploiting the images that may be conjured up when the eye encounters threads and bars), anything that used to belong but that tragically still pertains to the female sphere and its intended subjects.
In light of Samia Abdulrazzak’s paintings, this analysis intends to penetrate the offered miscellaneous details of the pieces by looking into the alluded metaphors of ‘passivity’, ‘penetration’, ‘rape’ and discrimination’, religion and history, truth and hypocrisy and the powerlessness and powerfulness of shapes, colours and language to scandalize the cruelty of patriarch- forced hierarchy, its ideological orientations and to dramatise its obsolete, narrow-minded and indeed, short-sighted conceptions of the female body and female existence in a larger sense, within the current post-modern era of enlightenment and progress.
This series of paintings tell a story… one that was engraved upon a helpless female body, locked in unspoken lips whose shape recalls that of a tomb resting restlessly within the centimeters of its imposed definition. Each frame represents a stanza in a female epic poem of suffering and submission; every colour portrays a feeling, a symbol, every trait an injury, a wound confined in deaf silence. And so the story goes… this silence once decided to speak to tame the pain and seek pleasure by putting into colourful shapes and dancing words the obsolete masculine reductions of female existence into spaces of exploitations, profits and losses. KHAOULA ZAITOUNI
In light of Samia Abdulrazzak’s paintings, this analysis intends to penetrate the offered miscellaneous details of the pieces by looking into the alluded metaphors of ‘passivity’, ‘penetration’, ‘rape’ and discrimination’, religion and history, truth and hypocrisy and the powerlessness and powerfulness of shapes, colours and language to scandalize the cruelty of patriarch- forced hierarchy, its ideological orientations and to dramatise its obsolete, narrow-minded and indeed, short-sighted conceptions of the female body and female existence in a larger sense, within the current post-modern era of enlightenment and progress.
This series of paintings tell a story… one that was engraved upon a helpless female body, locked in unspoken lips whose shape recalls that of a tomb resting restlessly within the centimeters of its imposed definition. Each frame represents a stanza in a female epic poem of suffering and submission; every colour portrays a feeling, a symbol, every trait an injury, a wound confined in deaf silence. And so the story goes… this silence once decided to speak to tame the pain and seek pleasure by putting into colourful shapes and dancing words the obsolete masculine reductions of female existence into spaces of exploitations, profits and losses. KHAOULA ZAITOUNI
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October 2010
About Samia Engineer
Born in Manama late November 1951. Grew up in Manama in one of the well known areas called
Freej al Awadyeh.
Enrolled in Bahain goverment schools from Kindergarden at Alzahraa primary school for the first three years. Moved to Al Gudaybia for the next four years and after finishing the primary school she went to Manama Secondary school where she received her high school certificate in 1967.
In 1967-1968 stayed at home for a whole year before enrolling at the Teacher Training College in Bahrain waiting for a teaching job but the ministry of education was not recruiting any new teachers in order to have students register at the college.
Received a higher Diploma in teaching Art Education from the Teacher Training College in Bahrain in 1970.
Began her career in education in October 1970 until 1973 at an intermediate school in Manama- Aysha Um Almoamineen.
In July 1973 she received a scholarship from the British council to attend a practical course in textile printing and ceramic at Redland teachers college in Bristol in UK.
In 1974 back in Bahrain started to teach at Issa Town secondary school only for one year.
In 1975- 1981 received a post as a field tutor teaching and training art education teachers ( both males and females ) at the In-service Teacher Training Center.
In 1981 received a grant for higher education from the ministry of Education she was admitted at Bristol university for Advanced diploma in education 1981-1982.
Continued her education at the same university 1982-1984 receiving a Masters Degree in Art Education- Bristol university UK.
Back in Bahrain from 1984 until 1987 began teaching at University College of Bahrain.
1988-1992 followed her higher education at The Pennsylvania State University in USA and received her PHD degree in Art Education specializing in painting from the same university.
Since 1992 until now she has been teaching at University of Bahrain.
2006 - First one-woman show Conceal or reveal, Bahrain Art Society
2008 - Second one-woman show Circular Cornerns, Bahrain Art Centre
2008 - Third one-woman show For Her, Bahrain Art Society
2009 - Fourth one-woman show Private and Confidential, Bahrain Art Society
2010 - Fifth one-woman show
Invisible Messages, The Courtyard Gallery
Born in Manama late November 1951. Grew up in Manama in one of the well known areas called
Freej al Awadyeh.
Enrolled in Bahain goverment schools from Kindergarden at Alzahraa primary school for the first three years. Moved to Al Gudaybia for the next four years and after finishing the primary school she went to Manama Secondary school where she received her high school certificate in 1967.
In 1967-1968 stayed at home for a whole year before enrolling at the Teacher Training College in Bahrain waiting for a teaching job but the ministry of education was not recruiting any new teachers in order to have students register at the college.
Received a higher Diploma in teaching Art Education from the Teacher Training College in Bahrain in 1970.
Began her career in education in October 1970 until 1973 at an intermediate school in Manama- Aysha Um Almoamineen.
In July 1973 she received a scholarship from the British council to attend a practical course in textile printing and ceramic at Redland teachers college in Bristol in UK.
In 1974 back in Bahrain started to teach at Issa Town secondary school only for one year.
In 1975- 1981 received a post as a field tutor teaching and training art education teachers ( both males and females ) at the In-service Teacher Training Center.
In 1981 received a grant for higher education from the ministry of Education she was admitted at Bristol university for Advanced diploma in education 1981-1982.
Continued her education at the same university 1982-1984 receiving a Masters Degree in Art Education- Bristol university UK.
Back in Bahrain from 1984 until 1987 began teaching at University College of Bahrain.
1988-1992 followed her higher education at The Pennsylvania State University in USA and received her PHD degree in Art Education specializing in painting from the same university.
Since 1992 until now she has been teaching at University of Bahrain.
2006 - First one-woman show Conceal or reveal, Bahrain Art Society
2008 - Second one-woman show Circular Cornerns, Bahrain Art Centre
2008 - Third one-woman show For Her, Bahrain Art Society
2009 - Fourth one-woman show Private and Confidential, Bahrain Art Society
2010 - Fifth one-woman show
Invisible Messages, The Courtyard Gallery
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