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Hend Adnan2Hend Adnan was born in 1970, Cairo, Egypt. She lives and works in Cairo.

Adnan received a B.A. from the Painting Department at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cairo in 1992. She has shown her work in many national and international exhibitions, festivals and meetings in locations such as Cairo, Kuwait, Dubai, Vienna, Paris, Alicante, Algeria and Jordan. Her work is represented in both Egyptian and international collections.
Adnan treasures the ability to work freely in oil colors and with live models, respecting shadows in all their forms, working on psychological moods and feelings into realistic representations and colors that bring together all the characteristics of oil colors with an emphasis on texture.

Hend Adnan's statement on her Donkey sculpture produced for the CARAVAN project:

Art gives us an experience freed from the disturbing conditions of actual life. An experience which is removed more entirely from bodily physiological accompaniment. Our experience has the purity, the intensity, and the abstraction of a dream.

Although the donkey is a peaceful animal, to call someone a donkey in many cultures means that person is an idiot. But donkeys are not necessarily stupid, and possibly quite intelligent, it has more to do with stubbornness than stupidity.

Polygamy has been practiced in most societies before Islam. Having more than one wife is related to animal nature than to human society. In Islam polygamy is allowed. With conditions and specific limitations, a man can have up to four wives at any one time. Some people choose the four wives option and forget about the conditions. This is what inspires me to participate with my donkey. My donkey has his four beautiful women, but being a donkey with hidden eyes, and a closed mouth, can he control them? Or do they rule over him?!


Mdina Biennale Venues