Rise, Habibi

Conscious of today’s political climate, the GINGKO supported exhibition Rise, Habibi aims to promote understanding across time, culture and identity – emphasising our shared humanity and capacity for collaboration. The exhibition places the present in conversation with the past, as the artwork of 50 female artists drawing inspiration from the poems of 30 Arab & Muslim women is to be displayed in the Crypt Gallery, London.

A showcase of artwork from women of many faiths and cultures, Rise, Habibi provides a counterpoint to the masculine led world, uncovering connections in women’s lives across centuries. In conjunction with the exhibition there have been poetry readings, a Q&A with artists, as well as music performances to create a deeply emotional and personal experience. Long dead voices of women from the Muslim world echo through the corridors of an art-filled crypt below a church in London. This is Rise, Habibi, an exhibition over a thousand years in the making.

Róisín O’Loughlin’s collaborative curation has yielded extraordinary results. Poems selected from the Saqi anthology Classical Poems by Arab Women were posted to fifty emerging female artists across the globe with an invitation to respond in any medium. The results of this interplay between eras, art and poetry are presented together in the Crypt Gallery, Euston.

The poems, displayed in English and Arabic, upend expectations of women from seventh to twelfth-century Arabia, some are daring and full of sharp wit as in these lines from a noblewoman and calligrapher of the Qur’an:

‘I am a lioness and will never allow my body to be anyone’s resting place. But if I did,
I wouldn’t yield to a dog
and oh, the lions I’ve turned away.’

– Aa’isha Bint Ahmad Al-Qurtubiyya 

Some talk of the sorrow of love, as in this remarkable poem of same-sex love from a tenth-century Amazigh woman:

‘My tears bare my secrets in a river of apparent charm.

Rivers touring gardens and gardens touring rivers.
And among the gazelles is a joydoe who’s palmed my
heart and unsleeped my eyes.’

– Hamida Bint Zidad

Still others speak of politics, sexuality and grief, a forceful reminder that these experiences are universal, and belong to us all. The wealth of poetic themes is reflected in the diversity of artistic responses. Many are paintings such as Chantay Daya’s tender lovers who wear a poem from eleventh century Andalusia as a cloak. Other forms include recreated clothing once described in sensual verse from Baghdad’s golden age; a Keffiyeh worn by the artist for fifteen years now embroidered with Arabic script and sound installations which bring the ancient poetry to life in this home of the dead. Collectively the exhibition shows a shared humanity and womanhood that transverses time and space, connecting ancient poems with contemporary artists from South America to Japan.

Funded in part by GINGKO, Rise, Habibi is a creation of Radical Love as part of the Shubbak Festival, running from May 28 to June 15, 2025. Proceeds from the sale of artwork are split between the artists and families in Gaza.

– Edward Martin, Intern at GINGKO