X Cultural Codes : Susan Hefuna

Susan Hefuna's Egyptian-German heritage has led her to explore the respective cultures' characteristics and oppositions. In her multifaceted photographs, drawings, installations and videos, the artist works with cultural codes and offers new insights in each of them. Navigating between different cultures and various media, Hefuna moreover questions identity as such. To her, digitally altered images of so-called Mashrabiyas (distinctive type of wood carving particular to the Arab East, mainly used for windows behind which women would not be seen from the outside), can serve as means to define gender specific spaces and spiritual concepts hidden behind the visible reality. Comprised of recent and selected works, this publication accompanies a travelling exhibition. (Bluecoat Arts Centre Liverpool 2004, UK, Curator: Bryan Biggs, Townhouse Gallery Cairo 2004, Egypt, Curator: William Wells, among other locations).