abrazos
I fell in love with Argentina…first by visiting my friend Celeste in Patagonia, then through the charms of Buenos Aires. One of the effects of this love is a yearning to dance tango.
Through an abrazo (embrace) we can feel our partners, feel our own emotions, feel our body, feel the music, feel the movement, and feel a connection…all which we hope to respond to or express each time we come together and step out onto the dance floor. Dancing tango requires complete presence with, connection to, and trust in one’s partner. The process of learning this sensual, improvisational dance reveals layers of metaphor for life, relationships, intimacy.
I explore this experience in my close-up paintings of embraced couples, as if the viewer is dancing with them, feeling that special energy created between them. In another group of paintings, I show bird’s eye views of a Milonga, (a tango dance party), exploring the emotion and movement expressed through dancing couples in a particular space. Then focusing closer, buscando el abrazo is a series of small format monotypes* mostly in black and white which depict a singular embrace as viewed from above - see and feel the nuances of movement and connection of an embrace in motion.
*Monotypes are one-of-a-kind hand made prints made by drawing or painting on a non-absorbent surface and then transferring the image onto a sheet of paper.
© Soad Kader
