Ink and gouache on paper
Not on view
An artist trained in Khartoum and London in the 1960s, Ishag was struck by the conceptual connection between the British artist William Blake’s eighteenth-century depictions of visionary states in mystic painting and poetry and the ritual healing tradition of zār. Practiced predominantly by women in central Sudan, where Ishag was born, zār is centered on expelling spirits from possessed individuals. In these drawings, the artist depicts the twisted faces and contorted bodies of figures possessed by spirits during ritual ceremonies, suggesting physical release and psychic transformation.
Vital Signs: Artists and the Body, November 3–February 22, 2024
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