Location: Mayer Museum of Islamic Art, Israel
Portrait of a Painter - “Between Sorrow and Beauty”
“The veil (hijab), decorated and ornamented with sparkling zircons, serves here as a symbol of the barriers placed on women by society, a covering that keeps women out of sight and palpably displays the contrast and mutual presence of beauty and pain." --Fatma Abu Rumi
Fatma Abu Rumi grew up in a small village in the Western Galilee as part of a Palestinian Muslim family. Her paintings in the exhibit “Between Sorrow and Beauty” do not depict her mother except for the hair from her mother’s head which Fatma collected for years from her mother’s combs and which, in one painting, she places in a crown with thorns on her father’s head. She does depict her stern father in a white jalabiya. Fatma does use her own image as a young woman. She uses the hijab over and over again. Sometimes she has zircons in the veil. She often uses teddy bears and falcons tethered to wrists. Many of her images are stunningly beautiful with rich colors and textures. Sometimes she reveals faces but never smiles. What is she signifying with these images that are obviously symbolic? Oppression? Lost childhood? Marriage too young? A repressive patriarchal society? What emotions does the viewer see? Alienation? Estrangement? Terror?
The women and the details are beautiful but there is pain and sorrow here.
The rebellion here is not just hers; it is the rebellion of all Arab women from a restrictive patriarchal societies. “It is the conventions that prevent women from speaking or acting without the permission of their guardian, lord, husband, or family elder.” It is also the rebellion from the western orientalist view of Arab women. Although her style is conventional and European, her use of real hair, cloth, and zircons is not.
In the short videos which were part of her exhibition, I saw Fatma washing some garments over and over in a small basin outside under some olive trees. The dyed colors of purple and red slowly leave the garment and a white appears. Apparently at the age of six, she was required to wash her brothers’ clothes by hand. In the video she seems to be washing away something from her past.
As a painter- artist, an unveiled woman, a woman living alone in Palestinian Israel, Fatma is definitely living outside the traditional conservative society in which she was brought up. She conveys through these icons and colors the oppression of Arab woman who are not allowed by fathers and their societies to make choices of their own. They endure but refuse to surrender.
The Mayer Museum of Islamic Art itself is a unique institution in Israel. As Farid Abu Shakra, the exhibit’s curator said “I don’t take it for granted that the museum opens its doors to these artists. The real change began in 2008. Back then the museum was a precursor by initiating inter-cultural discussion and talk. The museum understood the importance of promoting Arab artists and rose to the challenge. Change involves action, not words. The Islamic Museum is the first institution in the country to initiate these exhibits and invite an Arab curator to curate Arab artists and relate to this issue at eye level, as equals."