A pioneer in the Sudanese art scene, Kamala Ibrahim Ishag’s practice reflects on her own history growing up in Sudan. As one of the founding members of the Crystalist group, she has challenged traditional Sudanese aesthetic beliefs, used her distinctive artistic language to emphasize spirituality, and worked to eliminate subjugation, restrictions, disparities, and limitations upon women.
Inspired by nature and Zar beliefs in spiritual possession, Ishag’s art often depicts a melding of humans and plants. Posing questions about how much we are one with the natural environment, it reminds us of the relationships between nature and people and the cycle of life. The women with distorted expressions and bodies depicted in her art hint at the trances fallen into by women possessed by spirits (zar), with this distortion, seemingly stemming from oppression, being caused by the person’s state of mind, life, or environment.
The grids explored by Ishag in distinctive ways in works like Bait Al-Mal (2019) are part of her characteristic painting style. She depicts the human relationships of the neighbors in the Bait Al-Mal district where she lived as a child as an organic map adorned with bodies wrapped within cocoons. My Two Neems (2023) depicts trees that were planted on her father’s birthday and have lived in the garden for generations, and Origins (2022) suggests how people and trees stem from the same beginnings, expressing how we are rooted in the land and live as one with everything that grows there.