Source work:
2177/06
Zulu (Unknown Artist)
Pregnancy Apron (Isibodiya)
Hide, hooves, beads, string
When a Man loves a Woman - Hussein Salim
Hussein Salim (b.1966)
When a Man loves a Woman
Mixed media & collage on canvas
R20 000
The artwork that I have responded to is the Pregnancy Apron, based on my personal experience of my wife carrying our two children. I have always had far greater admiration and respect for the shape of a woman carrying a child than that of a "perfect" female figure. I see a pregnant woman as a woman in full beauty, fulfilling her role as a woman with glorious duty.
When I realised that my wife was pregnant with our first child, I felt a number of conflicting emotions. I felt great pride and an intense closeness to my wife but I also felt a type of jealousy as I felt that I was deprived of experiencing the pregnancy first hand. We did not tell our family in Sudan when we were expecting our first child. The reason for this was because I felt that my wife and I needed private time together to experience this fully. I did not want to play the traditional male Sudanese role of a father, that of being distanced from my wife. I wanted to be intimately involved, to deserve the term of parent/father and to play the protective role of the pregnancy apron. I wanted to be the one to surround her with love, the one to protect her and the child she was carrying. The stronger the love, the greater the protection. I felt intense happiness when I could feel the baby kicking inside my wife's stomach.
In my painting there are three figures. The red figure represents motherhood in general. The green figure symbolises perfection. When my wife was pregnant with our first child she kept saying that the sex of the baby did not matter, whatever it was would be perfect. I had dreamt that the child she was carrying was a girl and so when our son was born I was surprised. The blue figure symbolises peace and quiet.
When we were expecting our second child, the ultrasound revealed that the baby was a girl. This brought about a feeling of intense peace in me. I was going to be the father of a girl. This realisation had a profound effect on me. I had to be a worthy father of a girl, and one of the effects of this was that I stopped smoking and drinking. Girls for me represent morality, values, principle, and as a father of a girl I felt that my personality should reflect this as much as possible.