Figure/Ground: 4 Women and their Surroundings

Figure/Ground: 4 Women and their Surroundings An exhibition of photographs and paintings by four North African women April 20 - May 14, 2006 The figure/ground relationship is one of the basic rules of perception. The premise of the rule is that the figure in a painting or photograph is perceived as a structured entity over a shapeless background. Despite the totality of an image being visible to us, our perception focuses on the subject and accords it specificity, while viewing the ground as a generic, inactive and secondary compositional entity. Artists Arwa Abouon, Doa Aly, Rana El Nemr and Mona Marzouk, each in their way re-visit the figure/ground relationship and give it new meaning in order to ‘activate’ the ground both perceptually and conceptually as an entity that shapes and is shaped by the figure.