2023
Soft pastel and acrylic on canvas
610mm (H) x 457mm (W)
Two women sit side by side. Their toubs sit in stark contrast to one another. One is plain yet bold, the other patterned but subdued. Their hands are delicately touching. This piece is an ode to tender, intimate connections and relationships.
Leena Kheir is an architectural graduate, writer, artist and activist currently living in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Leena's works pay homage to Sudanese women and their centrality to nostalgic conceptions of home and family, as embodied by the Sudanese toub. Her recent series of works 'She is a Country' showcases the Sudanese toub as a cultural emblem and a representation of the constant state of adjustment that is the disporic condition. Through intimate portraits of her sister, mother and grandmother, Leena imagines her works as a love letter to Sudanese women.