Ghada Amer "Ghada Amer"

‘Ghada Amer, born in Cairo in 1963, grew up in Paris and now lives and works in New York. The most prominent subjectmatter of Amer’s embroidered canvases consists of women depicted in erotic postures. The figures are formed repetitively with coloured threads, producing a rich pattern. Amer is attracted to embroidery because it is traditionally regarded as a form of expression appropriate to women, but at the same time she is experimenting with ingrained role stereotypes. Her work carries allusions to minimalism and abstract expressionism, both of which are male-dominated art movements. While her paintings are imbued with sexuality, Amer’s sculptures are more concerned with the ‘woman’s voice’, and with the role that women are widely assigned by cultural or ‘biological’ necessity, i.e. the household. Text plays a prominent part in these works. Her narratives relate to experiences shared by women all over the world and to their cultural and sexual identity. Amer relates myths of romantic love and longing. For example, the text in her Encyclopedia of Pleasure, a random stack of 57 boxes of different sizes covered by a cloth, is an erotic manual from 11th century Islam. Amer’s work is a synthesis of occidental and oriental traditions. It is a commentary on Islamitic cultures, but also has connections to the norms of Western art. She deflates preconceived ideas, and probes the fuzzy boundaries between high and low culture, art and craft, Eastern and Western behavioural codes. A retrospective of Amer’s work was recently presented in the Henie Onstad Art Centre in Norway. It may also be seen in Museum Kunst Palast, Dusseldorf, and the Bidlsmuseet Umeå, Sweden. The Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, put on Ghada Amer: Pleasure last summer, and her gallery Deitch Projects in New York recently held an exhibition of work made in 2001. She was awarded the UNESCO Prize at the 48th Venice Biennale in 1999. A solo exhibition of her work is to open at Gagosian, London, in May 2002.’ (Press release De Appel) Catalogue: Ghada Amer. The Encyclopedia of Pleasure, 2002. Text: Sahar Amer & Olu Oguibe. Dutch & English. Bio- & bibliography incl. 112 pp., 19 b.w., 17 x 23 cm. Soft cover. Design: Irma Boom. ISBN 90 73501 56 3. € 25