Woman with Peony Flower

Description

In light of the global escalation of racial discrimination against non-citizens and people of colour during the COVID-19 pandemic, the artist began pondering the relevance of revisiting the history of science and racism. During her initial exploration, she stumbled upon two poignant narratives: the story of Ota Benga and that of Saartjie Baartman, both emblematic of humanity’s cruelty. These encounters spurred the artist to delve deeper into the subjects of race and slavery. Through this project, Najd aspires to shed light on a topic often shrouded in silence, aiming to illuminate the global history of racial slavery, particularly the plight of people of colour, within their artwork.

In this piece, Nadj’s subject is adorned with a vibrant floral headpiece, juxtaposed against block colours and breaking out of the frame that holds her. A White hand pulls at the skin of a Black face as if removing a mask and revealing a White body under a Black skin. Najd’s figurative paintings demonstrate a reflective artistic process that simultaneously interweaves and unravels the social chasm, juxtaposing the Middle East’s oppressive and conflict-charged context with the West’s utopia of “freedom”, and in doing so creates an open, but critical discourse between two opposing worlds.