From her first childhood scribblings to her mature artistic works developed during her journey spanning across the past six decades, Kamala Ibrahim Ishag, one of Sudan’s most influential modernist artists, has created deeply personal and spiritually resonant works that reflect her unique visual language and approach to exploring inner worlds, ancestral connections, and the complex interplay of the visible and invisible realms. Drawing inspiration from spiritual and devotional practices such as Zar ceremonies, Ishag’s works primarily address the conditions of women within society.

Among the works displayed in the Bienal, Dinner (2022) is an emblematic piece reflective of Ishag’s focus on domestic rituals and communal spaces. The piece portrays several scenes of intimacy shared by female figures sitting around tables, highlighting that the act of dining beyond the physical can be a shared psychic and emotional experience. In People (2022), Ishag’s portrayal of human figures veers away from realism and toward abstraction and symbolism. The individuals are not defined by distinct facial features or expressions, but by their contours and postures. Engulfed within a spherical-shaped form surrounded by trees, the work could be interpreted as the artist’s commitment to portraying the collective soul rather than the individual self. Faces (2017) focuses more intimately on identity, but not in the conventional sense. Produced using more ashy tones, the piece portrays a multitude of masks or vessels – faces that seem to carry histories, spirits, and emotions that mirror the tense and unbearable conditions women endure within patriarchal societies.

In the work Guarding Angels (2015), Ishag presents spiritual protectors not as heavenly figures but as ethereal presences woven into the earthly realm represented by domestic objects such as chairs and tables. These guardians seem faceless and formless, suggesting that their power lies in subtle influence and unseen strength. Inspired in great part by folktales recited by the female figures in her family, her work suggests that women in particular carry the dual burden and blessing of guardianship. Finally, Two Figures in Two Balls (2016) could be interpreted as a piece that explores themes such as duality and enclosure. Portraying two distinct figures isolated yet connected, the work invites us to self-introspection. Ishag’s use of soft lines and blended hues creates a sense of timelessness, as if these beings exist in an eternal, meditative state.

Expansive but not exhaustive, these works reveal Kamala Ibrahim Ishag’s profound sensitivity to the spiritual dimensions of human experience and challenge linear narratives by embracing feminine power and the deep interconnectivity between the living, the dead, and the natural world.