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A floral conspiracy - Culture - Al-Ahram Weekly

Titled Orbits of a Flower, Salma Elashry's new exhibition is an attempt by a female artist to articulate her connection with nature and reality using the flower motif. This is the second exhibition of its kind that I have visited recently after Unself exhibition by Omnia Sayed (reviewed in the 5-18 June issue). Salma Elashry's philosophical take on the theme (6-25 May at Zahwa Art Gallery downtown) featured some 50 acrylic on canvas paintings and mixed media drawings on paper. 'I started painting flowers before 2018,' she told me. 'I was preparing for a project titled Absent Utopia to be exhibited in the Youth Salon. For some reason, flowers were a symbol of idealism at the time. I painted different types of flowers but was greatly inspired by the figure of the sacred lotus. I realised then that the flower is not only related to ancient Egyptian art, where it is a symbol for rebirth and eternity, but it also exists in Indian and Indonesian culture and in Dante's Divine Comedy...' In 2011, Elashry graduated from the Faculty of Art Education at Helwan University, where she now works as a professor. Her debut solo exhibition took place five years later, and its theme was her relationship with her children – especially their toys – which was connected with her masters on street children as well. Elashry earned her PhD in the philosophy of art from the Faculty of Art Education in 2022. In her thesis, she focused on the concepts of utopia and dystopia as the inspiration for contemporary drawing. She studied literary works by Frantz Kafka and George Orwell, among others, turning them into drawings. Here too each painting has a corresponding short text she either read or wrote. Elashry's work evokes many schools including expressionism and surrealism. 'I believe I am more symbolist,' she said. 'Symbols from ancient Egyptian art such as boats, birds, oxen, lotus and poppy flowers, which refer to journeys, transference and transformation and the renewal of life cycles have always stimulated my imagination.' In addition, the artist worked on three different projects inspired by Orwell's Animal Farm. The Holy Channel, a 150 x 200 cm acrylic on canvas, depicts a huge buffalo at the centre, resting his heavy body on a vaguely ancient Egyptian boat, while the bottom third of the canvas is filled with pinkish lotus flowers. The Buffalo is a symbol of the Apis bull, an avatar of the god Ptah, who is also a symbol for fertility and strength. The artist regards the lotus as a significant icon due to its meaningful representation of balance, rebirth and inner transformation. The painting, full of symbols, is an attempt to think past visual memories. It also encourages meditation on the concept of departure and transference. Elashry was also inspired by ancient Egyptian engravings she saw on temple walls in Luxor and the ancient Egyptian description of paradise, which is related to her study field on utopia. 'I believe that most evil seen nowadays,' she says, 'is a true reflection of dystopian literary texts, like Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, for example.' This work reflects a yearning for exploring identity-related issues. Some paintings reflect the artist's direct connection with ancient engravings and murals in Luxor and in the nearby village of Gurna. In most paintings, the troika of woman, flower and bird or fish can be seen. Branch and Dove, a 200 x 120 cm acrylic on canvas, depicts a woman standing on a red carpet where many pigeons gather along with scattered flowers around her feet. In the background are tiny, reddish, geometrical lotus flowers. In a short poetic text accompanying this painting, the artist described herself as a lotus flower, a girl arises from the heart of the field, carrying ears of wheat the way grandmothers once did. Another captivating painting depicts a bust of a young woman with a hoopoe on her head, giving her a sense of joy and freedom. Here as elsewhere warm colours, especially shades of red, prevail. For the artist, red implies passion, energy and strength. Born in Al-Burullus in Kafr El-Sheikh, the artist developed a strong bond with the landscape in childhood. Watching the seasonal migration of birds was one of her favourite activities. 'Spending my childhood and teens on an island facing Al-Burullus Lake strengthened my relationship with different elements of that primitive landscape,' she said. Many paintings depict a human hand softly tied by the flower's stem in a spiral way, stressing the artist's strong bond with nature. Elashry is also fond of portraiture. Portraits of women make up a good part of the collection on show. Having studied of ancient Egyptian way of drawing the eye, Elashry paints the human eye in a unique way. 'The eye is the mirror of the spirit,' she remarked. It took her two years to complete this collection. During that time, she would follow the news extensively, especially the ferocious attacks on Gaza. 'I wanted to create a peaceful world in parallel to the awful one I was watching on TV.' Another mixed media drawing on paper depicts the astonished face of an innocent boy on the screen of a traditional television set whose shadow resembles the traditional Palestinian black and white scarf, apparently asking for help from the outside world, with a bunch of red flowers extending out of the TV. An equally astonished green hoopoe stands on top of the set, apparently sharing the boy's cry for help. Elashry is a meticulous and prolific artist. Sketches, however incomplete, are essential to every new painting. Two drawings on paper inspired by The Divine Comedy, made using graphite pencils and acrylic colours, are currently on show at Zahwa Gallery's group show entitled The Fusion of Hope. The drawings take the viewer from this hyper realistic world to an imaginative and expressive one, depicting new visions of flowers and birds coupled with floating children's faces. Despite the artist's obvious yearning for perfection, her work reflects a passion for surrealism and conceptualisation that actually conflicts with perfectionism and requires a level of spontaneity, which creates a contradiction. 'Actually,' she confessed, 'I like doing conceptual art more than anything else, but it is not always welcomed or understood by viewers. Sometimes, the taste of the audience controls the artist.' As I finished my tour in the gallery, I was overwhelmed by a sense of peace. A number of canvases, I noticed, are circular or oval, celebrating curves and reflecting the sacred geometry of Sufism as well as the celestial orbits of the title. * A version of this article appears in print in the 3 July, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link: