Atlas

Decomposing the face and its features

Souad decomposed and abbreviated her women, who appear to be trapped in soulful and physical limits.  They are swathed in a transparent veil. The painter’s assessment of simultaneous concealment and exposure of faces and bodies in the surface captures the bewilderment of the viewer as s/he endeavours to detect what is concealed inside and what is floating away in the surface. The eye in Souad’s work also increases the viewer’s bewilderment. Freed from the restrictions of Cubism in favour of the psychology of the painter, the recurrent eye is featured looking at different directions to dramatise the disturbing situation, in which Souad’s women are placed.  They are helplessly encumbered with concerns so weighty that their faces are expressionless. Souad revealed her technique of intriguing obfuscation in “Who Is This Woman?”, “I Want to Love Myself More”, “Me and My Shadow”, “My Secret”, “Who Cares About Me Now?”, “I Am Gagged”, “Like a Lonely Owl” and “My Dream”. In these paintings, Souad’s women do not show their soulful inclinations, which are unavoidably in opposition with the human nature. For example, an intersection of eyes and cheeks signals that the faces of Souad’s women are in a difficult dilemma because they got lost. Souad also came up with faces desperate to shed their mask-like skin to express themselves. These frustrated faces are depicted unconcerned in metaphysical atmosphere from different angles as they are attempting to choose the appealing and safe path from intersected and intertwined web of choices.  Faces of Souad’s women would also wear a transparent veil. They appear to be visually decomposed to reveal multiplying separate chambers to display the biology of a helpless human being, whose concerns are misdirected or abused.

Primitiveness & Metaphysics

Paintings, illustrating imaginary jungle scenes are undoubtedly the roadmap of Souad’s soul more than they are landscapes depicting nature. These paintings also give the impression that they are the illustrations, in a surrealistic atmosphere, of the human mind to display the innocent process of co-existence.  The presence of these women in such an intriguing atmosphere provokes much of the viewer’s curiosity. It seems that Souad seeks the help of her women to revive her primitive innocence, an initiative the painter has made since the beginning of her metaphysical experiment. The painter’s individual experiment pursued throughout different phases of her art, is also influenced by nostalgia for her early beginning. Souad works diligently to introduce an individual art, which has the potential to challenge attempts sought to bracket her with others.  She has come up with an artistic experiment, which stands out against the movement of contemporary Egyptian art, which has been recycled in recent years by untalented painters and novices.  Normally, Souad’s impulsive and attractive art will draw the attention of plagiarisers. However, they would quickly discover that Souad Abdelrasoul is too difficult to capture her fascinating metaphysical soul.In her work, Souad skillfully brings a dim light composed of untamed colours. A cool moonlight reveals a human face belongs to both the locale and the message in the surface. Her paintings give us the impression that we are, physically and instinctively, the descendants of the Primitive Man. Undoubtedly, Souad’s experiment has broken a deadlock in Henri Rousseau’s art. She opened new doors onto a world, which had been inaccessible to the pristine nature, its instincts, isolation and the metaphysic of the existing reality.  Such a successful experiment is demonstrated in “The River”, which illustrates a woman lying peacefully inside an island-like small boat floating in bluish green stream. The woman is integrated into the landscape: the jungle and the water. To the right in the foreground, a sparrow attempts to balance itself while the woman holds dried branches of a tree. The intriguing atmosphere in this painting is also energised by cool moonlight and the woman’s vague gaze.
In her painting “The Tree of Men” (2020), Souad displays an extraordinary scene of dense jungle where trees appear to be breathing and growing human heads, whose eyes are gazing at the viewer. The painting could be a depiction of a stage displaying a lifeless trunk of a tree immersed in the water. A woman swathed in transparent robe and holding a cup overflowing with water is seen standing in the middle of the three heads.
Souad’s woman in “The Tree of Men” has been released to embrace a crocodile in “The Woman, Who Loves the Yellow Crocodile”, which was exhibited at an art fair in South Africa to mark the World Woman Day. The Woman Crocodile encounter recurred in the “Fisher Woman” (2021).  

Contact between the magician’s eye and the bull’s

Perhaps, “The Magician” (2021) is Souad’s most outstanding achievement. The painting is part of the art collection of Chazen Museum of Art of the University of Wisconsin.  In her comment on this particular painting, Souad said: “I cannot tell for sure whether it is the third or fourth time. All what I remember is that I feel myself like a body professionally anaesthetized to be cut patiently into pieces.”
The gaze in “The Magician” is the recurrence of four expressionless eyes in “The Bull’s Eye” (2020).  The mouth, from which a tongue is sticking out or baring its teeth, also recurs in the two paintings.
“The Bull’s Eye” features a large-size leaves forming the backdrop for a woman, who, clad in a see-through dress, is trying to balance herself on the animal. The woman and the bull are staring at the viewer. Although the woman and her animal companion are sharing the same facial features, they cannot claim a friendly relationship. It seems that they seek to remind the viewer of the legend of Loch Ness Moster.
On the other hand, the gaze in “The Bull’s Eye” and “The Magician” delivers the same message. Souad’s woman in the “The Magician” is lying helplessly on the operating table as the magician bid to remove her see-through dress to dissect her. The vulnerable woman is desperate for help from the eyewitnesses (the viewers) against the magician’s tricks.
The body of Souad’s woman is by all means a hard to decode. She is the victim of trickery and superstition. Signs of primitive macho bravado, physical strength and sleight of hand are manifested in “The Bull’s Eye”.
The animal is the representation of negative and appealing characteristics of the human nature. Despite their different environments, Souad’s bull and the magician have the same natural instinct.       

Partnership between the woman and the crow

Souad brokered in her work a partnership between the crow and her women. This relationship is highlighted in four paintings, which were exhibited in Dubai Art Exhibition in March 2022. They are “The Woman and the Crow” (2021), “Me and My Shadow” (2022), “Me and the Crow” (2021), “Midsummer Dreams” (2022) and “My Secret” (2021).
Souad has rehabilitated the bird, which is considered in time-honoured cultures and superstitions as the harbinger of misfortune and bad luck. The crow has also done more injustices over allegations that it is the deliverer of the dead person’s soul to the land of the dead.
The cow has been vindicated in Souad’s work. The painter introduced the bird as the women’s faithful companion. Soaud’s crow is depicted pecking off a leafy branch and handing out it to his female partner. But, under the heavy presence of enigmatic symbols in the work, the crows appear to be look alike men wearing black tuxedo in an atmosphere echoing with sound noises produced by the birds, regardless of the leafy branch in its peck.
Transparency & Colour
Despite untamed colour in some areas, dimness in the work overwhelms the elements so intensely that the faces were transformed to grooves separated by black and transparent shadows. If Souad dealt heavily with black, the colour would have evasively disappeared altogether or oscillated between presence and absence.
The painter carefully assesses her technique of concealment and revelation to prompt the viewer’s eye and mind to work in harmony. Her technique in this regard is highlighted in “The Magician”, “The Nile Crocodile”, “Me and the Crow”, “I Want to Love Myself More”, “Birth of Venus” and “The Woman, Who Loves the Crocodile”.
In “The Nile Crocodile” (2021), the moonlight boosts the transparency of the woman’s white robe as she is sitting on a rock sticking out from water. The woman is surrounded by heads of three men. The stagnant water is fenced off by cactus plants. The gathering of these incongruous elements provoked an uneasy and rather awesome atmosphere.
Souad’s primitive hot and obstinate colour in “The Nile Crocodile” evolves in different paintings into green, blue and brown. Sometimes, silvery grey illuminates the scene to mark the transformation of colours or their birth at dawn under crimson and golden glow.
The farther the blue in the backdrop, the cooler and the hotter it became—alternately. Yellow remains the source of energy in the painting in its state of primitiveness. Souad’s colours breathe difficulty by attempting to ride the light, which moves slowly in the depth or towards unhappy different nightlife underlined by cool blue and transparent white.
Transparent colour in Souad’s work is the continuation of her early experiment to cut through the human body to satisfy her curiosity about the mystery of its invisible viscera. Her enigmatic adventure in this respect is highlighted in “Crossing the River” (2021), which reminds the viewer of the soulful connection between our inner physical life and the outside world, in which we live.

Suspended Time

Titles Souad thoughtfully suggested to her paintings give a sense of déjà vu. Nonetheless, they are falling short of delivering a message to the viewer. Rather, the titles of Souad’s paintings create an impregnable barrier of heavy air formed by the dim light to frustrate the viewer’s endeavour to identify her creatures promptly. The painter persuades us to examine her works patiently and thoughtfully to break the mystery inside.
Souad is attempting to encourage us not to stop wondering. She persuades us to have a sympathy with her world. The question is: Does the skillful painter not compose a mantra to help us feel happy? There must be someone, who has introduced such a long-sought mantra.