Artist Hend Adnan: A woman revolution against the mind of donkeys!

Well. I wrote previously on Hend Adnan’s works of art, but when she introduces a new idea, in a unique way, I must review that, as I believe it is the reader’s right to know.

Talking about rights, and duties, the idea of having four wives is well commonly attached to the negative image of Muslim men, all around the world. But, to be fair, if that kind of polygamy was permitted by Islam, the condition to apply it could be difficult, if not impossible, and then the same practice of polygamy would be called by Islam itself “unfair”.

The new collections of the artist Hend Adnan show us a group of donkies, and as the artist state ” Although the donkey is a peaceful animal to call someone a donkey in many cultures means that person is an idiot. But donkeys are not necessarily stupid, and possibly quite intelligent, it has more to do with stubbornness and not stupidity”.

Art gives us an experience freed from the disturbing conditions of actual life. An experience which is removed more entirely from bodily physiological accompaniment. Our experience has the purity, the intensity, and the abstraction of a dream, she adds.

Commenting on “polygamy” she says that it has been practiced in most societies before Islam, having more than one wife is more related to animal’s nature than human’s. In Islam polygamy is allowed, with conditions and specific limitations, a man can have up to four wives at any one time. Some people choose the four wives option and forget about the conditions. Anyway this is what inspires me to participate with my donkey. My donkey has his four beautiful women, but being a donkey with hidden eyes, and closed mouth, can he control them ..! Or do they rule over him?!”

The new collection of donkeys made by Hend Adnan is focusing on one concept:omen are human beings just like a man is. They deserve to be treated well and with respect and therefore, he doesn’t have the right to abuse them and to treat them like objects. But a donkey is known as a stupid animal.

Hend was born in 1970, Cairo, Egypt, where she lives and works. She received a B.A. from the Painting Department of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cairo (1992). She has shown her work in many national and international exhibitions, festivals and meetings and her work is represented in both Egyptian and international collections. Adnan treasures the ability to work freely in oil colors and with live models, respecting shadows in all their forms, working on psychological moods and feelings into realistic representations and colours that bring together all the characteristics of oil colors with an emphasis on texture.

Two types of donkesy; the Small Donkey: painted with golden and silver colors over a warm deep orange color, where Women drawn in black fiber, and Big Donkey, painted with acrylic and oil colors, accessories are in copper, rope and leather.

List of Exhibitions
2013 The General Exhibition, Cairo
2012 Summer selection Gallery Misr
2012 Solo Exhibition – Boushehri Art Gallery – Kuwait
2012 Egyptian Tales , Art Space Gallery-Dubai
2oo9 faces – Horizon one Gallery Cairo -Egypt
2009 colour and stone sonata – khan El Maghraby Gallery – Cairo-Egypt
2009 Under current – Gallery Art sawa – Dubai
2009 Exhibition of Egypt’s creative women artists – Vienna
2009 Arab artists’ exhibition – Kuwait
2008 100 years fine Arts – Cairo – Egypt
2008 Autumn Salon – Paris –France
(The catalogue cover, poster and invitation)
2007 Egyptian Contemporary Art, Alicante –Spain
2006 Stars of the Day – Horizon one Gallery Cairo -Egypt
2006 Egyptian Contemporary Art, Algeria
2005 Colour Poems for the muses -Picasso art Gallery –Cairo – Egypt
2005 A Creative look at animals – khan El Maghraby Gallery Cairo-Egypt
2004 Seventh Salon of Small Art Works Cairo -Egypt
2003 Creation of Arab Women –Palace of arts. Cairo-Egypt
2003 Ninetieth exhibition – at El Gezira Art Centre
2002 Festival of Garish – Jordan
2002 Triad of Sun and Moon – Exhibition at Khan El Maghraby Gallery
2002 Noun wa Founon, at Picasso Gallery.
2002 Prize of the Fifth Salon of Small Art Works -Egypt
2001 In the frame Exhibition at khan El Maghraby Gallery -Egypt
2000 Four Aspects for the Pyramid – Exhibition at khan El Maghraby Gallery
2000 Exhibition at El Gezira Art Center -Egypt
1994 Second Prize at the Heliorama exhibition of youth -the French Cultural Center, Third Prize 1995 and 1996
1993 The Fifth salon of Youth. – Cairo -Egypt
1992 Spring exhibition Cairo -Egypt