Isabelle Gallery will present a solo exhibition with works by Hoda Tawakol. Born in London and raised in Paris, Hoda Tawakol is a Franco-Egyptian artist who currently lives and works in Hamburg, Germany. Tawakol’s broad practice encompasses hand-dyed and sewn textile pieces, mixed media sculptures, fabric collages and installations. Her work attempts to deconstruct symbols and archetypes that obstruct female agency and orientalist notions of identity.
The center piece of our booth will be one of Tawakol’s rich monochrome Jungle inspired by the captivating paintings of post- impressionist artist Henri Rousseau who never visited jungles but depended on his imagination of the exotic uncharted land which was entangled in a Western orientalist gaze. Orientalist iconographic repertoire of the ‘lure of the exotic East’ contributed to the subjectivation and subjugation of the societies they
depicted. Tawakol’s response to the exotic stimulus in the art of the intellectuals of the nineteenth century comes in the form of this impressive wall piece.
