A mong the paintings that Nusreldin Eldouma left behind when he fled Sudan is a watercolour portrait showing a Sufi sage, a popular figure from Sudanese folklore. Painted last year – just before Sudan was dragged into war after a power struggle between two factions of the country’s military – it shows the 17th-century sheikh Farah wad Taktook, an icon of peace, says Eldouma. Now he only has photographs to show, the canvases that are his life’s work left behind in the ruins of the city of Khartoum.
View image in fullscreen Above: photographs Nusreldin Eldouma’s work displayed at his recent three-month residency at 32° East, and below his watercolour of a Sufi man, entitled Inner Peace. Photographs: Courtesy of 32° East/Nusreldin Eldouma View image in fullscreen “I like this painting because the character pursues simplicity and inner peace that appears in the features of his smiling face,” says Eldouma, one of four Sudanese artists now in exile in Uganda who recently completed a three-month residency at 32° East , an arts centre in the capital, Kampala. The centre, which gave the artists accommodation, an allowance and materials, organises Kampala’s long-running public art festival, KLA ART , in August.
The sheikh’s peaceful demeanour is, says Eldouma, 55, in contrast to the current state of affairs in Sudan , where continuing hostility between the two warring sides has contributed to a cycle of violence that is pushing millions to the brink of famine . Vie.
