Hadil Moufti: Photocollage and Fantasy
Explore a magical world that underlines core themes of humanity
Hadil Moufti, Mandala with Pigs from the series Mandalas (2016). Courtesy of the artist.
With text by Rose Balston, lecturer, TV presenter and art historian.
Enter Hadil Moufti’s studio in Bastakiya Dubai, and you are like Alice entering Wonderland. Here, the artist painstakingly cuts out delicate printed photographs of cockroaches, children, goldfish, cows and oryxs, some pieces no bigger than a fingernail. Meditatively, Hadil cuts, pondering what these what these characters will go on to represent. Fast-forward to the finished piece, and the viewer enters an enchanting, surreal world where Hadil’s toil subsides to magic, subtly laced with profound human issues.
Moufti the miniaturist? Only a few years ago, she would fling oil paint around the canvas using her hands, the back of the brush and heavy impasto, her energy splattered thrillingly across the work.
This radical change from a liberal, virtuosic use of oil to contained intense work with photo collage begins with a tree in Regent’s Park London, in the Autumn of 2010. Yet the leaves on this tree were not curling their brown faces to winter—they more reflected the blossom of Kyoto cherry tree during the first April flush. The poignant juxtaposition between rebirth and death captivated Moufti; and the photos she took started to appear in collage from within her oil paintings. Soon, rich fleshy oils lost their importance, and the controlled pencil, paper and photographic collages became her protagonists.
Stories, ancient and modern, are the key cradles within which Moufti’s imagery take form. Le Petite Prince and its themes of migration, separation and loneliness is hugely important to her. The triptych Oryxes on Asteroids remind us of that little blond-haired boy alone on his own planet, exploring new worlds and searching for friends. As the daughter of a peripatetic Saudi Arabian diplomat, she clearly can relate to such themes.
Moufti once found her 11-year-old niece Maryam, on the brink of puberty, dressing up as woman with red curlers and lipstick. The subsequent photo of this memorable face, seen thousands of times in Hadil’s oeuvre, is blasted across the surface of Maryam as though caught in the same twister that Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz experienced in Kansas. Like Dorothy, Maryam undergoes dramatic change; a new identity is being formed and childhood fades. Adding her characteristic touch of humour, Moufti echoes her niece’s pursuit and playfully dresses up the face, adding a bindi here and extra rollers there, as though Maryam were the template of a paper doll.
The archaic stories of the Tower of Babel and Noah’s Ark fascinate the artist. One quirky piece combines both. Noah’s Ark is built, yet where are the animals? The only creature within is the mundane goldfish. And look: the fish are swimming backwards against the flow of the Ark! They don’t want this haven of security and prefer—of course—to be back in the flood water. To make the ridiculous situation worse, like Jack’s catastrophic beanstalk, a fantastical architectural hotch-potch grows out of the Ark. Representing one of Moufti’s many Towers of Babel, it totters towards collapse and destruction. Despite its undertones of human folly, this piece is far from miserable. Bubbling humour and ironic absurdity skip happily alongside the Babelian tragedy.
Moufti now works on her mandala series, which began with the elevation of the cockroach. Close to seventy times, she laboriously cut the printed image, making sure that every hair on every roach-leg was clearly defined (surely the shoe-maker’s elves visit Hadil’s studio at night-time?). On her paper she created a geometric pattern of cockroaches worthy of an ancient Persian carpet. Initially paradoxical, we then remember this seemingly insignificant creature was once given sacred status by the ancient Egyptians. Mythology creeps to the surface and Hadil reminds us that all things on this precious planet should be celebrated. For light relief, her vast pink pig mandala makes you laugh in the crazy joy of it all. Well over 100 pigs—the lucky ones winged—snuffle ever inwards towards the central core. If ever there was a fire work of pigs, this would be it; the perfect remedy for a grey day.
Like Alice waking from Wonderland, you leave Moufti’s studio feeling enriched, humbled, amused. In short, a great adventure.