Woman to Woman: Artist Hend Al-Mansour celebrates women and Islamic art
Go Deeper.
Create an account or log in to save stories.
Like this?
Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.
Minnesota artist Hend Al-Mansour wants you to think about Khadijah and Hafsah, each a wife of the Prophet Muhammad.
“In this work, I am celebrating two ancient Muslim women who really influenced Islam in its early life and history,” Al-Mansour says. “I just want to give them the credit that they deserve.”
They are at the heart of Al-Mansour’s new exhibition, “Contain Me,” opening with a reception at 6 p.m. Nov. 23 at the SOO Visual Art Center in Minneapolis. The show includes kaleidoscopic works, in both video animations and painted large-scale illustrations which include depictions of Khadijah and Hafsah.
Khadijah, Al-Mansour explains, witnessed the birth of Islam and supported and inspired the Prophet, while Hafsah, was the keeper and protector of the first complete copy of the Quran.
Turn Up Your Support
MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all.
“They were called mothers of believers, and from them, we have a lot of examples and role models to guide all Muslims.”
Al-Mansour calls the video animations “whimsical.” She depicts herself with the two women.
“I wanted in them to kind of connect myself to those women and also connect myself to Islamic art as a woman,” Al-Mansour says. Al-Mansour is Muslim and originally from Saudi Arabia. She moved to the U.S. in the late 1990s.
“When I was growing up, I looked at Islamic art and I felt like men were the ones who made it. It never crossed my mind that there would be more women making it, which is logical,” she says.
In the video and the painted illustrations, Al-Mansour creates her own interpretation of the nonfigurative vegetal patterns in traditional Islamic art. She combines bright blues and yellows, violets and reds, and weaves the silhouettes of the women into the abstract patterns.
“It’s a way for me to reclaim my position in Islamic art, and hence my equality as a woman and my worth to be a full human,” Al-Mansour says.
Another exhibition at Soo Visual Arts Center opens alongside this show by a friend of Al Mansour: Fawzia Khan’s “Transformed.” Both shows are on view through Jan. 5.
