Artwork: Rayan Elnayal, Mappamundi of Afrabia, 2019, Digital Media (Courtesy of the artist).
‘Creating art allows me to constantly question, review, change, develop and propose my ideas without judgement.’
— Rayan Elnayal
Rayan Elnayal
Rayan Elnayal is a Sudanese British artist/designer based in London. She uses the skills she obtained from her architecture background to visualise and speculate on fictional spaces. She is interested in how magic realist techniques can aid in the production of ethnocentric futurisms in Sudan, the SWANA (the South-west Asian/North African) region and its diaspora. Her interest in magic realism and the idea of ‘Afrabia’ initially started as part of her architecture thesis project at the University of Greenwich and remains an on-going project. Since graduating Elnayal's work has been featured in several publications and has held two solo exhibitions in Central London. Rayan has also participated in events around diversity in creative industries.
Mappa Mundi: Kalila Wa Dimna
In Mappa Mundi: Kalila Wa Dimna Rayan proposes a magic realist piece, inspired from Medieval European maps, specifically the ‘Mappa Mundi’. The repurposed medium allows to create non-literal maps depicting different narratives and journeys. The large A0 piece captures the environment of ‘Kalila wa Dimna’, the ancient tales’ story within a story process, its characters, and their rich and diverse personas. The artist wishes to transmit each character’s different skills, assets, and perspectives, highlighting how together they form a powerful collective in facing adversity. The piece will present a visual digital collage of different perspectives and sceneries. After all, the beauty of a ‘Mappa Mundi’ is that it liberates the viewer from the one-point aerial view of the world found in traditional maps. Rayan invites to viewer into a rich visual experience enjoying the artwork as a large whole and in its smaller scenic details. The artwork is also a reflection on the third space between East and West, showing the power of an ancient text like Kalila wa Dimna in crossing boundaries through travel and translation.
Work in Progress
-
‘Part 1 of the Kalila Wa Dimna Mappamundi’ (with the dove)
-
‘Part 1 of the Kalila Wa Dimna Mappamundi’ (with the mouse)
