Ghada Amer
I was angry - RFGA, 2020
Acrylic, embroidery and gel medium on canvas
Text transcription:
“I was angry about the human talent that was lost just because it was born into a female body and the mediocrity that was rewarded because it was born into a male one.”
Text transcription:
“I was angry about the human talent that was lost just because it was born into a female body and the mediocrity that was rewarded because it was born into a male one.”
48 x 48 inches 121.9 x 121.9 cm
GHA.17828
© Ghada Amer
Further images
During her artistic studies in Nice, France during her youth, Ghada Amer (b. 1963, Cairo, Egypt) was routinely turned away from painting classes as they were reserved exclusively for men...
During her artistic studies in Nice, France during her youth, Ghada Amer (b. 1963, Cairo, Egypt) was routinely turned away from painting classes as they were reserved exclusively for men at that time. This experience convinced Amer that gender was prescribed even in art making. This facet of her training had an indelible impact on her practice and, by the early 1990s, Amer, seeking subversion, had developed her own visual language of taking thread to canvas rather than paint, as embroidery constituted women’s work in the domestic domain. "I was angry-RFGA" is from her body of sewn works in which the artist uses quotes from literature or popular figures to communicate women’s empowerment. The lettering in this work spells out: “I was angry about the human talent that was lost just because it was born into a female body and the mediocrity that was rewarded because it was born into a male one.”