Journeys of the mind and spirit

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‘Extremely beautiful and deeply moving’: disadvantaged women have been given a voice through art at Journeys East, at London’s Wallace Collection

For centuries, immigrants have come to London from all parts of the world, often fleeing persecution, war, famine or other disaster, seeking to create a better life in a new home. Nowadays, they are often presented to us as statistics in the news and they are otherwise invisible to many people, physically indistinguishable from other people whose forbears came to this island one or more generations ago. Women can be particularly invisible, often staying at home while their menfolk go out to work.

A range of organizations have developed to help immigrant communities, and among these groups several have now collaborated with the Wallace Collection to open up the world of art to immigrant women. In so doing, they have given these women a means of telling their own stories.

The Wallace has a rich collection of Dutch old master paintings, including Rembrandt’s portrait of his son, Titus, Nicolaes Berchem’s A Southern Harbour Scene and Caspar Netscher’s The Lace Maker. From the Dutch ‘Golden Age’ of the 17th century, the Dutch travelled far and wide for trade and the Netherlands became extremely wealthy. Much of this wealth came from trade with the East, with the activities of the Dutch East India company, and fittingly the Dutch old masters are now displayed in the newly refurbished East Galleries.

It is therefore very appropriate that West Hampstead Asian Women’s Group, Aiana Women’s Group, Newham Family Learning Services and  West Ealing Deaf Minorities Women’s Group have been given the chance to discover this art and its history. The link with the Dutch East India company means that this is a history that relates very much to their own countries of birth in South East Asia.

Working with freelance artists Sobia Khan, Alex Hirtzel, Amber Khokhar, and Caroline Dorset, women from South Asian backgrounds have been inspired by the Dutch masterpieces to create their own art. The results are extremely beautiful and deeply moving.

Working with the themes of  ‘Identity’, ‘ Treasures’, ‘Travelling’, ‘Inside and Outside the Home’ and ‘Spices’, the women have created wall tiles, vases, collages, and silk wall hangings. The works are full of stories. Souad Mohamad has lost her hearing, literally deafened by bombs in Baghdad. A ceiling-to-floor silk hanging, about a foot across, shows her journey from Baghdad to Jordan and on to London. A butterfly symbolizes her migration – indeed, this room of the show, where the walls are lined with silk hanging’s like Souad’s – features many butterflies. Women who have been so vulnerable themselves, and yet travelled so far, identify with these fragile creatures that nonetheless often migrate hundreds of miles.

Other hangings feature birds, cars, elephants, mosques, fish, aeroplanes – even a bicycle – along with landscapes and abstract patterns. They were created by painting on the silk with special inks. Marbled effects were achieved in places by sprinkling different sizes of salt crystals on the wet ink.

None of the women had created art before. Some had never been far from their own front doors before, not allowed out unless accompanied. Kulsum Bukhari wrote of her hanging: ‘My silk is about journeys. The vehicles and the instruments are interlaced with prayers for hope’.

In the centre of the main gallery, a glass case holds pink ‘treasure bags’, sitting on circular mats decorated with glittering braid, stuck on ‘jewels’ and painted patterns, all made by the West Ealing Deaf  Minorities Women’s Group. They took inspiration for the colours and patterns from Gabriel Metsu’s Sleeping Sportsman, and Jan Steen’s The Harpsichord Lesson, among others. The effect is stunning – I wished I could take a bag home… but quite rightly all the works will be returned to their makers when the show closes in February. These artists – who range in age from 7 to 70 – can all be proud of what they have achieved.