Untitled, a brush, pen and ink drawing by Ibrahim El Salahi of Sudan shows two skeletal figures
seemingly paralyzed in fear as they both gasp at the scorpion near their feet. The head of the
male is crowned by bull’s horns, while the female has a small decorative creature on her chest.
A koranic board sits between the heads of the two figures. Salahi once wrote that his nephew was
stung by a deadly scorpion in Sudan and all that he and his sister could do, as doctors were
useless, was stand by horrified and watch the child die. The well known Writer/Art Critic, Ulli
Beier has said of Salahi that, “ No other artist could create a more perfect synthesis of the
cultural elements that make up modern Sudan, the Islamic tradition and the wider all-African
orientation of today." El Salahi now lives in England.
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