HODA TAWAKOL: DELICIOUS MONSTER

Ruttkowski;68 Grabbeplatz 2, 40213 Düsseldorf
27.5.22-10.7.22

Photo credit Mareike Tocha
Text by Jule Arden

Hoda Tawakol presents her first solo exhibition “Delicious Monster” at Ruttkowski;68 in Düsseldorf.

The artist works mainly with fabric; dyes, shapes and fills it, turning it simultaneously into artwork and canvas, projection surface and content. In their form, color and sensual materiality, the works develop a high symbolic power that takes up elements from botany and physicality and embeds them in an intercultural context.

The exhibited work originates from different series, addresses the female body and its ambivalent perception in patriarchal structures.

Delicious Monster, an enormous monstera deliciosa dominating the room, precisely spans this ambivalent space, evoking a juxtaposition of contrary feelings, from fascination and threat to attraction and fear. It plays with the viewer’s associations, recalling longings and abundance, power and manipulation.

Mummies, cocoon-like bodies of nylons filled with rice – wrapped, pulled, mummified – construct a bodily presence that makes transformation, distortion and control visible. The Nudes series – created in similar materiality and technique – counter this by an empowered yet reduced corporeality.

Wall-filling fabric sculptures of date palm trees, which are of high symbolic and physical value in middle eastern cultures, refer to gender fluidity, motherhood and its life-giving characteristics.

The multifaceted textile and bodily landscapes raise questions and irritation throughout the exhibition, while presenting unique aesthetics that can be perceived throughout the own bodily constitution.