There is a certain magic in Nabeeha Mohamed’s relationship with colour. An array of works tempers her recent collection, Brown Petal; curated by Jana Terblanche, expertly arranged to convey a dream-like wonderment in an unusual setting – namely, The Vault in the Silo Hotel, with a contrast placed between the adjoining car park and Nabeeha’s bursting palette of floral arrangements and feminine motifs. As a Michaelis alumni, I am taken aback by Nabeeha’s admission that she has only been solely dedicated to her artistic expression for the last three years despite having graduated in 2011, and the idea of challenging the institutional prerequisite for art graduates to “play the game” immediately after studies feels deeply courageous and effortlessly natural.
Our conversation takes place over video call, with Nabeeha in Tulbagh for an artist residency. Late afternoon light streams throughout our conversation – setting a mood that I feel is perfectly akin to her relationship with her practice; a practice that is dedicated and delicate as she explores the vast thematic nuances that inform her ongoing dialogue with herself.
“I am not sure Brown Petal is a fully realized show. It feels like an interim body of work. I had just finished a show with WHATIFTHEWORLD, and I was in this strange space where I had rounded off a collection. I tend to work quite organically, and beginning this collection with sketch works using watercolours, I was trying to create new pieces. Each of the works I had made were an attempt to make quieter pieces – as I feel a lot of my style is rooted in loud, bursting compositions. I cut up and remade the pieces alongside each other, so there was a synergy in that aspect of the process.” Nabeeha muses.
Curiously, she asks what season I would place Brown Petal in? I opt for Spring – contrary to Nabeeha’s own feeling, which she describes; “I find it conveys an autumnal feel. I leaned on browns and acid-green which I associate with the creeping on of the colder months.” This contrasting perception leads me to express that this could show how transient the collection actually is, as the day I viewed the collection it was the warmest day in Cape Town for quite some time; and thus, the pieces stood out as confirmation of this shift in temperature and temperament. How beautiful, that art created with a certain energy can evoke diverse responses, and remain fluid alongside the original intention of its formation?
“In terms of my actual practice, it began with my attempt to tackle a certain question. I thought it would be answered, in a way, with my initial return to creating – but as time goes on, I realise more and more that this question is deepening as the backbone of my practice, probably for the rest of my life.”
What is the backbone, I ask?
“It’s essentially my identity as a woman of colour, and how to navigate that and celebrate that and love it. Also, how that intersects with my experience of wealth privilege, as I investigate where the one intercedes the other. Where one disables, and where the other one can assist.” Nabeeha states – as we both recognize that the two are not mutually exclusive and are true in a dialect relationship.
I find artists who relate to themselves in their work as offering a sort of medicine or remedy to the viewer; because it is a language that is developed in relation to the age-old inquiry to the Self. Identity is constantly manifesting; shifting, shaping and forming – it is perhaps the most reliable source of inspiration, for it remains unique and flowing moment to moment. The ontological implications of turning within with one’s work is endlessly fascinating, and as I speak to Nabeeha, this is all the more confirmed – “I approached starting work again rather tentatively, and I suppose I started to practice again for myself; so I suppose my advice is that the gap we are told to avoid when leaving art school is just a fallacy. Having acquired skills is one thing, but to be an artist and to be able to pick up on it at any point in time and space is what determines one’s ability – and I think that this ability is true for every artist, whether they have studied or not.”
There is a sense of serenity as we end our conversation. I am fulfilled knowing that creativity never dissipates, and perhaps it only needs to rest before we return to take up the mantle of expressing our inner-worlds; a commitment Nabeeha conveys not only in her consistent offering of work but also in her reliance on herself as a muse; herself as prose and praxis embodied through each brushstroke.
