Egyptian artist Huda Lutfi’s practice is greatly informed by her career as a cultural historian, and is concerned specifically with the investigation of how cultural remnants, history, traditions and bricolage relate to the contemporary moment. Lutfi works in painting, collage and installation, employs political insignia and slogans, and borrows from traditional styles ranging from Islamic to the pharaonic. Often, Lutfi uses deconstructed, fragmented mannequins in her work, representing the lack of value ascribed to certain bodies, and symbolising commercialism, excess and waste. In recent works, the artist has embroidered jagged lines of stitching onto a mannequin’s torso, a traditionally feminine, gentile form of craftsmanship that, in the case of Lutfi’s work, is almost disconcerting in its jagged entanglement. ...
