Noran Hamed | Umm el-Fahm Art Gallery

The digital illustrations portray a female figure undergoing a transformative ceremonial act, mutating from woman to wolf. The wolf and the woman, respectively, exemplify different aspects of femininity, puberty, motherhood and childbirth. Referencing ancient rituals of devotion to goddesses that were used to mark sexual maturity, well-known tales, and widespread beliefs, the series of illustrations challenges stereotypical gendered notions of physicality, while drawing links among human nature, religious practices, and myth. The illustrations present a sort of storyboard of a metamorphosis, in which a woman’s body changes but also interacts with the change– a wild and non-confirmative means of presenting the coming into existence of the hybrid. Noran calls attention to, and criticizes, societal expectations of the role, behavior and aesthetics of women. It is the tension between these expectations and the natural untamed and wild character that she identifies in women, that generates the ultimate synergy: a woman wolf. This is echoed in the technique used by Hamad: her lines are almost instinctive and impulsive, driven by what she defines as intuition rather than by concern for realistic representation.

Exhibition Review in the Press