Female nudes, coloured threads;the first retrospective in France of the Egyptian-Franco-American artist Ghada Amer unfolds in three Marseilles venues. From embroidery to sculpture, different forms of art have never ceased to portray the freedom of women.
"My subject is women. It's not the Egyptian woman, it's women in general. And besides, when I represent my women, they are Western women. And I want them to be western women because I want to use the western canon, that is to say the white, almost blonde woman, to talk about women in general. Because for me in any case, had I used a woman who was either Asian, African or Arab, people would have thought that the problem was only for those women, and that it did not affect us, whereas the problem is that of all women worldwide," said Ghada.
Then Ghada Amer wanted to create a contrast between the embroidery and women represented in other postures.
This later made her change the model by painting with thread and needles.
"The first obstacle was not having access to painting courses in France. So that's why I chose to do embroidery. I don't particularly like embroidery. People think I love doing it, or that it's something I used to do when I was little. No. I mean, I've seen a lot of women do embroidery. Not embroidering, but sewing, actually. And so I took this activity as a kind of +ok, if they don't let me paint, if it's embroidering our destiny, I'm going to get into art through using this tool+," said Ghada.
This was "also a way for Ghada to show that the rather simple definition of her as a woman artist who embroids and works from images had certainly been a part of her work. She is now hoping to reach out to the rest of the world to simply showcase her imagination.
Her work talks a lot about painting and further uses sexuality as a medium by painting with thread and needles.
