Bahia Shehab is an Egyptian artist and academic. Her work raises issues of injustice and uses symbolism and language to highlight these particularly across the Arab world. In Aberdeen for the Nuart Festival she painted a mural as well as producing a number of more localised interventions.
Using a line from a poem from Palestinian author Mahmoud Darwish, it is this that forms the core of her Aberdonian mural. Painted using a stylised form of Arabic script it says ‘Bear Witness that I am Free and Alive’. It’s a work and a phrase that Bahia is using to reference the current conflict in Gaza.
Interview with Bahia Shehab
Mahmoud Darwish
Often considered to be one of Palestine’s greatest poets, Mahmoud Darwish’s work and words often feature in Bahia’s work. For this piece, the idea of ‘bearing witness’ was an important one. “I want to confirm that we are all bearing witness to an idea that will remain free and alive” said Bahia. Hoping that the wall itself would become a place of conversations and a mechanism for raising more awareness of the conflict in area of Israel and Palestine.
Watermelon
Created using the colours of red, white, green and black. These are the colours of the Palestinian flag. They are also the colours of a watermelon and it is this fruit that Bahia has tried to depict in the mural. The wall shows a slice of it. Cut through the middle with the works revealed inside. It’s a concept and reference that goes back to the early 80’s when Palestinians were banned from flying their flag. As a means of visual resistance, the watermelon found itself used as a proxy and it’s a symbol that has endured to this day.
Saying No
Prior to her work in Aberdeen Bahia Shehab was probably better known for her ‘No’ project. Here she set out to discover a thousand ways to say the word no in Arabic. Initially created in 2010 as part of an art exhibition in Germany. It soon took on new life as she responded to the aftermath of the 2011 revolution in her home country of Egypt by stencilling the word ‘No’ in different forms across Cairo.
A Thousand Times No TED Talk
Participating
Keeping an eye on the revolution. Bahia decided that she wasn’t able to keep quiet as she started to witness injustices happen around her. “There are points in history where you can be a spectator or you can participate and I decided to participate” she told Inspiring City. Her means of doing that was to use her ‘No’ project to spray it in different forms. Doing so until 2013 when the writing of political graffiti was banned in Egypt.
Spreading the Word
“I realised saying no once was not enough” Bahia told us. The development of the project after Egypt saw her spray no in other parts of the world. Always featuring an Arabic symbol for the word followed by a statement. ‘No to hatred’, ‘No to Extremism’, ‘No to Fascism’ and what she says is a new no for her following the current conflict in the middle east ‘No to Genocide’
Aberdeen
Aberdeen is the latest city to experience her ‘No’ project. Stencilled onto walls and doors they are dotted around and nestled in the streets of the city. An opportunity to keep the message going whilst the main attention is on the mural created for the festival. That piece, a section of Watermelon, draws the main attention but the works are complimentary.
“If they know nothing about whats going on in our part of the world I hope they can educate themselves” says Bahia of the work. Hoping that by learning and taking an interest through art it will help in building more of a collective awareness. A believer in the collective to place pressure through peaceful and non-violent means. Her fervent hope is that things will change and that we will stand on the right side of history… this time.
Bahia Shehab was interviewed as as part of the 2024 Nuart Festival in Aberdeen. The event took place between 6-9 June 2024
For more Inspiring City articles you might like, take a look at…
- All the Murals from the 2024 Nuart Aberdeen Festival
- Where to find Street Art in Aberdeen
- Nuart returns with a line up for 2024
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Great writeup Stuart! She is a brilliant artist and activist!
Thank you Sami I totally agree, really great to get to learn more about her work