Mixed media:
"Protesting Pain"
A visual protest against the mass killing and rape of protesters at the Khartoum sit-in, June 3rd, 2019- done in Khartoum in the days after. Which is more of an emotional diary, painting out of raw emotions and the great pain I felt.
Work in progress
"apart", is a new painting spread into 12 different size canvas ... mixed media on two big canvas is 150 x 180 cm each and 10 canvases of different sizes.
This artwork is a personal account of my life, feeling the heat and the cold of the diaspora, stretched between four continents, my roots in one, and memories as a young child in another, my boy growing in a third, living and working in a fourth!
Living in many worlds. [apart] from where you were born.[apart] from people you love. [apart] from where you grew up. [apart] and hanging by a thread. A thread of love, a thread of dignity which the tree symbolizes, alive or dead.
"The Gift of Poetry"
This installation was created for Black and White exhibition on Dec, 2014, the theme was to celebrate Sudanese poets.
My work "The Gift of Poetry" tries to touch on our feelings when we read poetry. While borrowing from Christmas, as a gift giving season, the idea of decorated boxes. I thought why not combine the two!
To me poems are like gifts in a way, every poem has it's own music, every poet has his own rhythms and melodies, to our delight poets share their inner peace and turmoil. For making "The Gift of Poetry" I did build the boxes from drawing paper, adored every box with black ink to conveying emotions. I though may be plants can translate my idea in a poetic way, so every box shows it's own rhythm and music .
I asked the exhibition visitors to write poems they love and put it inside the box they see fit in terms of rhythm, I had a box with big brush strokes of black ink, this box was filled with commiserations poems. Other boxes were filled with love poems.
"Identity"
"Identity", By Iman Shaggag, 2007-2008, mixed media on photographs
How would you (your life) be affected, if you had been born in a different place and time?".
And how our features or looks and cultures affect our lives!?
Using a photograph of me, which was taken by artist A. Elmardi in April 2007, as he was adjusting his camera, the photo was over exposed and he wanted to delete it, which made it perfect for me, in terms of loss of details, more over the neutral pose allowed for broader possibilities to experiment and explore the idea to it's maximum at this point in time. I used etching ink, graphite powder, tempera and acrylics.
I was able to alter my features using the same photo, after printing it out multiple times, posing as Sudanese women from different parts of the country. With different hair styles, tribal facial marks and accessories. I could have easily been any of them. But my life definitely wouldn't be the same, because of bias and racism.
Iman Shaggag 2008
Philadelphia, PA, US
Absence
It’s Raining War!
© Iman Shaggag. All Rights Reserved.