Greenbox dictionary of Saudi Arabian artists

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Hend Al-Mansour (1956) is an installation artist who works often with silk screen prints. She was born in Hofuf in Saudi Arabia and emigrated to the U.S.A. in 1997 after a career in medicine. She has a master of fine arts from Minneapolis College of Art and Design (2002) and lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.

She writes that she uses art to achieve social change, exploring belief systems, especially those dealing with women, while cultivating the independence of Arab art from Western art and its distinction from other Middle Eastern and Islamic identities.

'My work is often a portrait of a woman,' Al-Mansour writes on her website. 'I make drawings of stylized figures and faces representing those women and integrate them with Islamic ornamentation. I then silk screen them onto fabrics, often using henna and dye and often repetitively. I use large sheets of silk, wool, canvas, or other cottons. Then I build shrines and tents with these fabrics, creating spaces in which the viewer walks barefoot.'

In a similar way Al-Mansour has also produced two large books, one of which was the 5 by 4 foot Autobiography of a Human Body (2000).

Some of her installations were commissioned for theater and dance productions such as the Arab and Jewish houses which were part of the set of a musical show. (2009).


Sources:

www.hend-al-mansour.org
www.wikipedia.com

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From top to bottom: Identity 4, Entrance, My prayer rug.