Maimuna Adam (b. 1984, Maputo, Mozambique) completed her Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art at the University of Pretoria in 2008. Her work focuses on personal and historical narratives related to the act of travelling. Materials such as coffee, tea. ink, banana fibre paper, charcoal, acrylic paint, canvas and books are used to explore notions of identity and memory in relation to ‘mixed origins’ and histories. The artist makes reference to fictional and factual narratives, questioning the role of images and objects in relation to memory and the subjectivity of the act of re-membering.

Works

Entwined, 2011

Entwined, Maimuna Adam, Edition of 3 + AP, 6´45´´, 2011

Projecting as a circular ‘window’ reminiscent of a ship’s porthole, Entwined is a visual reflection focusing on the intricate technical detail of fingers and hands while braiding hair. The braid is a symbol which brings to mind memories of my Indian-born paternal grandmother, who would more often than not wear her long hair in a thin braid. Through this apparently simple act I explore and question ‘female’ and ‘feminine’ narratives, and how these are mediated alongside different cultural, political and religious beliefs.

Having moved to Sweden with my parents and siblings when I was 5 years old, whether it coincides with the actual order of events, I remember my Dadi, in Maputo, trying to teach me to read Arabic, and how frustrating it had been for both of us, and how I had only managed to memorize the first four characters before leaving. After our return to Maputo, my grandmother became ill and was eventually diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, her condition deteriorating quickly.

Within the almost mechanical, repetitive, movement to ‘weave’ the hair into a braid, I attempt to find the unspoken lessons that are passed down the family line,which might have been left behind, that have been ‘entwined’, and unravelled, in one’s being, perhaps subconsciously. The mysterious feminine is brought to view through an intimate dream-like space where these ‘vignettes’ are seen to merge and multiply. The undoing of the braid parallels the character Penelope in Homer’s Odyssey, where tapestry is replaced by braid, and the loyalty that the loom represents between husband and wife in the original story, here becomes the familiarity between women of different generations, of the told and untold stories woven, passed down, from mother to daughter, from sister to sister, grandmother to granddaughter.

Model: Cecilia Ferreira