Written by MARIA LUNDERSKOV

Born in Cairo, Egypt, in 1948, Huda Lutfi is both a cultural historian and a visual artist. A self-proclaimed Sufi, the artist grew up with an intrinsic interest in the ancient history of her country, and spent a lot of her time scavenging for items she attributed meaning to in the old streets and markets of Cairo. In 1983, Lutfi earned a PhD in Arab Muslim Cultural History from McGill University, Montréal¹. She became a self-taught artist, who draws upon her academic background to mix historical icons from ancient cultures (Pharaonic, Coptic, Arab, etc.) with contemporary pop icons². Lutfi experiments with gender roles within a historically patriarchal framework, challenging societal norms through her diverse mediums, including painting, collage, and installation ³. Nonetheless, she refuses to be limited under one theme, but rather an overarching mission of reflecting on human restriction, be it physical, mental, or societal.

Upon returning to Egypt in 1983, Lutfi explored her cultural belonging through her art. She started teaching at the American University in Cairo (AUC), where she held courses on Sufism and gender dynamics⁴. In digging into Egyptian culture, Lutfi also addressed the impact of contemporary social movements and political events in the country, like the American invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the Arab Spring in 2011. In the early 90s, Lutfi slowly transitioned from her teaching career to focus on becoming a visual artist. During the beginning of the decade, she went to the US to undergo invasive surgery, as well as teach Middle Eastern history and a course about Arab legal documents at Harvard University (1991-92)⁵.

Prompted by her recuperation from surgery that left her temporarily immobile, Lutfi started exploring collage as a medium. Inspired by her own physical condition, her work became an exploratory research of the human body and physical restriction. Lutfi’s first piece, Woman Cut in Half, 1991, is a mixed media collage featuring a complex array of layered images and textures. The piece is structured into a vertical format with a predominant use of rectangular and square shapes that frame each disparate black and white image, suggesting the multiplicity and fragmentation of historical narratives. The central figure is that of a woman whose body has been cut in half, serving as a commentary on Lutfi’s personal experience of feeling physically detached post-operation. As seen in the pasted images of Woman Cut in Half, Lutfi often photocopied, combined, and painted on images of goddesses (and sometimes gods) of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Crete, and India. This process allowed her to reflect and learn about art in a more free and playful way than she would have during her formal studies⁶.

As part of her earlier graduate studies, Lutfi researched the presence of women in historical Arabic literature. The absence of accounts by female writers made her inquire: “where am ‘I’ in these narratives?”. Her observation instigated her to fight for the recognition of women in social life and cultural production. Lutfi reflected this feminine presence and energy through the female figures she depicted in her art. In the collage Hand Tied, 1997, Lutfi presents a repetition of a naked female figure, reminiscent of a Coptic doll, with arms and legs tied back, and a pin skewered in the belly button. A carved bone Coptic doll was historically used as a tool to rid negative energy by pricking pins into it. In Lutfi’s work, the doll came to signify the artist’s state of suffering and helplessness⁷ experienced through personal family difficulties.

Lutfi’s art highlights the femininity of the female figure, but she also uses the female figure to create a powerful and inspirational archetype. By juxtaposing ancient and modern elements that apparently do not have anything in common, she reframes well-known images and gives them additional meaning. This cultural hybridity is observable in the installation Duchamp’s Jaconde, 2003, in which Lutfi juxtaposes Duchamp´s Mona Lisa and a Pharaonic statue in order to contest the binary discourses on cultural and gender boundaries⁸. Furthermore, one of the most represented icons in Lutfi´s art is the Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum. By juxtaposing her with universal images such as Buddha, as in the artwork The teacher, 2008⁹, and the statue of Liberty in Stepping on nails, 2008¹⁰, Lutfi presents Umm Kulthum as a universal feminine icon, rather than solely Egyptian or Arab¹¹. By placing Umm Kulthum in contexts that tend to present cultural restrictions imposed on women, like those connected to teaching or politics, Lutfi gives her a place in societal discourses¹². Through these significant images, Lutfi valorizes the feminine figure and presence.

In an attempt to render women visible, Lutfi addresses the discourse of restrictions imposed on women and the struggle in making their emotions and sexuality recognized¹³. Many of the female figures in Lutfi´s early work are framed within the artwork. The surrounding border (frame) serves as a visual depiction of oppression¹⁴ that women feel under patriarchal conventions. According to Lutfi, these limiting conventions incapacitate the feminine potential¹⁵. In Woman in Frame, 1997¹⁶, a semi-naked female figure is surrounded by a tight composition of squares and rectangles, leaving her without any space to move. The terracotta color that prevails on the image resemble bricks, while the decorative elements above the woman´s head recall a roman temple, all working as if the woman were entombed within an architectural structure. The image posits the question whether the woman will break out of the frame and free herself, or accept her condition as an inevitable reality^[xvii]. The theme of restriction of women´s expression remains central in Lutfi´s work as she experiments with different ways to translate the idea. This can be seen through the two feminine legs glued to a cubical structure in House bound, 2008, as well as pictures of women confined in the limited space of a bottle in The perfume garden, 2008^[xviii].

In the 2000s, Lutfi’s art shifted focus from the collective female experience to the feminine city of Cairo. In order to create a visual representation of the city in 2001, Lutfi took on the role of an urban archaeologist by collecting discarded objects that she found on the street, or in markets and shops. Among the large variety of objects that she collected, dolls were most ubiquitous. Choosing bricolage, an artistic technique involving creation from a diverse range of found items, the images that eventually emerged were a mixture of fantasy and documentation. Being inspired by the fact that most of the dolls she collected belonged to women, and that the name of the city in Arabic, al-Qahira, is in the feminine form, she pictured her imagined city as a feminine entity^[xix].

This research of the city lasted for many years, and allowed her to intertwine the cultural significance that the found objects carried together with socio-political problematics that the artist experienced in person. In the period of 2001-2003, which was characterized with remarkable violent events like 9/11 and the US invasion of Iraq, many of the representations of Cairo everyday life expressed an anti-violence stand. The row of headless Barbie dolls, with raised arms stacked in a wooden box, with “No to War” written in English across their silver spray painted chests, in her artwork No to War, 2003^[xx], is a reference to the demonstrations held in Cairo against the US military policy^[xxi]. By using a female figure to make a political statement, Lutfi states the presence of the female voice.

In 2006, Lutfi used the medium of the doll to comment on the effects of globalization on local productions. She drew inspiration from the observation that the tradition of hand-made doll making had been replaced with plastic dolls, mass produced in China or Korea. Lutfi revisited some of the doll-making traditions that were prevalent in Egypt – the stuffed doll, paper mâché doll, metal doll, sugar doll, etc. – in order to integrate them in her work^[xxii]. In Mashrabiyya dolls, 2003, Lutfi combines the feminine tradition of cutting out paper dolls for the purpose of healing with another artistic tradition, the mashrabiyya, a wooden perforated screen used in traditional architecture to protect women from the male gaze but still allow them to see outside. Lutfi´s installation creates a reversal in this gendered spatial construction, in that the female figure is no longer found behind the screen, but rather constitutes the screen itself, where the feminine becomes a visual filter^[xxiii]. Here, by adopting innovative ways of representation, Lutfi aimed to revitalize the feminine practice of doll making.

Even though Lutfi´s art is focused on the figure of the woman, she does take up to discussion the power and physical strength attributed to the male figure. One of the few male dolls that she found in her search through the streets of Cairo, was a miniature of a police officer with no arms. By placing the doll on the front seat of an old-fashioned miniature-carriage, in Police officer, 2003, she evokes a note of irony^[xxiv]. Both the miniature size, and the dated mode of transportation Lutfi places the officer in, ironically contrast the inflated image government officials have had throughout history. Through the years, men in uniform have become a recurrent symbol in Lufti’s art. They have been used to critique institutional power, which, in most societies, is exercised by men. Amidst the tumultuous events that constituted the Arab Spring (2011-2012), Lutfi produced Marching on Crutches, 2012, currently part of the Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation. The diptych mixed media piece is made up of two horizontal panels with a combination of acrylic and photomontage. The artwork presents a series of soldiers, seemingly in motion, marching back and forth over a mirrored carpet of crutches. The men in uniform, with helmets and weapons, can be seen as a critique of the oppressive power exercised on the protesters, while the crutches possibly carry the meaning of the fragility of power. In this panoramic piece, as in many others produced during the Arab uprising, Lutfi puts to question the role of gender, culture, and class within, and in opposition to, patriarchal structures of state and society^[xxv].

Huda Lutfi's dual identity as a historian and visual artist converges in a powerful exploration of gender, culture, and societal norms. Through her innovative blend of historical and contemporary imagery, she challenges patriarchal norms and explores the complexities of gender dynamics in Egyptian society as well as universally. Lutfi's use of collage and found objects not only reflects her personal experiences, but also serves as a powerful commentary on global issues, such as war, globalization, and political unrest. By reclaiming well-known female symbols and creating new narratives, she not only renders women visible but also inspires a reimagining of feminine identity in an insistently dichotomous world. Today, Lutfi continues to live and work in Cairo. She has stepped aside from charged political climates, choosing to focus on, “the quieter world of the intimate”²⁶.

Edited by Elsie Labban

References:

Aware. “Huda Lutfi.” Accessed 17 February, 2024. www.awarewomenartists.com

Badran, Margot. “Dis/playing power and the politics of patriarchy in revolutionary Egypt: the creative activism of Huda Lutfi.” Postcolonial Studies, 17:1, 47-62

Gypsum. “Huda Lutfi: Bio.” Accessed 15 February, 2024. www.gypsumgallery.com

Dietrich, Linnea S. “Huda Lutfi: A Contemporary Artist in Egypt.” Woman's Art Journal, Vol. 21, No. 2 (Autumn, 2000 - Winter, 2001): 12-15

Mehrez, Samia. Huda Lutfi. Cairo: American Press, 2012.

Lutfi, Huda, Samia Mehrez, James Stone. “Women, History, Memory.” Journal of Comparative Poetics, No. 19, Gender and Knowledge: Contribution of Gender Perspectives to Intellectual Formations, (1999): 223-244

Notes:

¹ “Huda Lutfi: Bio,” Gypsum, accessed 15 February, 2024, www.gypsumgallery.com
² Huda Lutfi, Samia Mehrez, James Stone, “Women, History, Memory,” Journal of Comparative Poetics, No. 19, Gender and Knowledge: Contribution of Gender Perspectives to Intellectual Formations, (1999): 223-244
³ “Huda Lutfi: Bio,” Gypsum, accessed 15 February, 2024, www.gypsumgallery.com
⁴ “Huda Lutfi,” Aware, accessed 17 February, 2024, www.awarewomenartists.com
⁵ Linnea S. Dietrich, “Huda Lutfi: A Contemporary Artist in Egypt,” Woman's Art Journal, Vol. 21, No. 2 (Autumn, 2000 - Winter, 2001): 12-15
⁶ Huda Lutfi, Samia Mehrez, James Stone, “Women, History, Memory,” Journal of Comparative Poetics, No. 19, Gender and Knowledge: Contribution of Gender Perspectives to Intellectual Formations, (1999): 223-244
⁷ Samia Mehrez, Huda Lutfi (Cairo: American Press, 2012), 48-49
⁸ Samia Mehrez, Huda Lutfi (Cairo: American Press, 2012), 25
⁹ Samia Mehrez, Huda Lutfi (Cairo: American Press, 2012),152
¹⁰ Samia Mehrez, Huda Lutfi (Cairo: American Press, 2012),166
¹¹ Samia Mehrez, Huda Lutfi (Cairo: American Press, 2012),151
¹² Samia Mehrez, Huda Lutfi (Cairo: American Press, 2012),151
¹³ Samia Mehrez, Huda Lutfi (Cairo: American Press, 2012), 51
¹⁴ Huda Lutfi, Samia Mehrez, James Stone, “Women, History, Memory,” Journal of Comparative Poetics, No. 19, Gender and Knowledge: Contribution of Gender Perspectives to Intellectual Formations, (1999): 223-244
¹⁵ Mai Serhan, “Huda Lutfi: The artist and the historical moment,” Jadaliyya, October 18, 2012 www.jadaliyya.com
¹⁶ Huda Lutfi, Samia Mehrez, James Stone, “Women, History, Memory,” Journal of Comparative Poetics, No. 19, Gender and Knowledge: Contribution of Gender Perspectives to Intellectual Formations, (1999): 223-244
¹⁷ Huda Lutfi, Samia Mehrez, James Stone, “Women, History, Memory,” Journal of Comparative Poetics, No. 19, Gender and Knowledge: Contribution of Gender Perspectives to Intellectual Formations, (1999): 223-244
¹⁸ Samia Mehrez, Huda Lutfi (Cairo: American Press, 2012), 32
¹⁹ Samia Mehrez, Huda Lutfi (Cairo: American Press, 2012),54-57
²⁰ Samia Mehrez, Huda Lutfi (Cairo: American Press, 2012),135
²¹ Samia Mehrez, Huda Lutfi (Cairo: American Press, 2012),56-57
²² Samia Mehrez, Huda Lutfi (Cairo: American Press, 2012),130-131
²³ Samia Mehrez, Huda Lutfi (Cairo: American Press, 2012),30
²⁴ Samia Mehrez, Huda Lutfi (Cairo: American Press, 2012), 61
²⁵ Margot Badran, “Dis/playing power and the politics of patriarchy in revolutionary Egypt: the creative activism of Huda Lutfi,” Postcolonial Studies, 17:1, 47-62
²⁶ Artist Spotlight with Huda Lutfi, Sept. 2020. ArteEast: The Global Platform for Middle East Art. www.arteeast.org