Method in madness: Artist Wafa Khoury combines texture, material as well as form to dwell between the realms of figurative and abstract

Sheetal

If art could be put in a box, it would be the death of an artist! Shuttling her time between Lebanon, Paris and Chandigarh, artist Wafa Khoury can’t demarcate a clear line as to when different cultures started to appear in her paintings. She feels that the chaos in her mind translates into her abstract paintings.

The self-taught artist combines texture, material as well as form, dwelling somewhere between the realms of the figurative and the abstract. More than 30 of Wafa’s paintings on paper and canvas are on display at Art Gallery in Alliance Française de Chandigarh, Sector 36.

Wafa doesn’t like to follow a norm and thus can’t be fitted into a box. While some has facial expressions, other are simple silhouettes and figures without facial features so the viewers can see what they wish to see in her work.

Wafa pairs her blue-black dress with a block print (blue and green) bandani dupaatta, which holds a significance in her life and art. She says, “The inspiration for those paintings is carefully gleaned from the delicate poetry that the country’s traditional dresses exude. A simple draping, a print, a scarf in the breeze, a graceful demeanour in an intricately embroidery saree. I found that Indians have a warmth which I relate to as Lebanese culture is somewhat similar.”

Interestingly, bright colours like blue, yellow and red crept into her works once she became familiar with Indian culture. One can see a little Rajasthan, tribal women, clippings in Urdu and Sanskrit in her works. It offers an interesting perspective of trivial scenes from everyday life and at times harsh realities through the eyes of a foreigner.

Wafa, who believes in living in the moment, does not know what subject would interest her next. She just expresses the chaos in her mind through colours and she finds the process therapeutic. “I didn’t even know that I was sitting for 10-12 hours daily to do this project,” she says. Dividing her time between her home country, and her time with son in France and daughter in India, who is married to Indian Army Officer, Wafa feels it’s tough to leave a place she calls home for months. Hence, the chaos finds its way to her canvas.

Wafa’s canvases are scattered in art lovers’ homes in Lebanon, UAE, Qatar, France and the US.