In Katrina Verbalovich's New Dawn exhibition Amira El-Naqeeb was following the beat There is a quality to the paintings in Katrina Verbalovich's latest exhibition in Cairo, New Dawn, and that is you don't quietly ingest the images at first glance. You have to look at them, take a deep breath, look at them again and allow them to sink in. Another quality is you can't actually separate the artist and her spirit from her paintings. That is to say that at first glimpse the paintings didn't "get" to me. My impression was big blobs of colour combinations, mixed media and vague connections. Verbalovich was sitting on a stool in the middle of the gallery wearing a beatific, Zen-like smile. I took the stool next to her and sat in silence. I started moving my eyes around the room, trying to absorb all the energies, the emotions, the impressions the paintings invoked in me. It was only when she started talking, that I felt I had ventured into a new realm, her realm. She let me in, and I felt privileged. The first painting that hooked me and pulled me in was Nut and Geb Meet. The dominating blue colour has a serene character, such that if you contemplate the painting long enough you enter a state of narcosis. "Nut is the sky, the celestial body, the femininity, and the sensuality. She is the womb of the universe," Verbalovich explained. Nut is depicted in the Temple of Dendera; she is an icon in Pharaonic history. The painting has Nut and Geb together in union. There are also organic shapes of what looks like interconnected golden triangles that add a flair of contrast to the different shades of blue. According to the artist, these triangles symbolise the Flower of Life. This is a given modern name to what is known as the sacred geometry, which has teachings that were present in the cultures of the ancient Egyptian, as well as the Mayan cultures. The Flower of Life is made of evenly spaced and interconnected circles that form a geometrical figure. They are arranged in a hexagon to form a flower-like pattern. "The symmetry in the sacred geometry represents the undeniable oneness within the creation of all things." Shifting with our eyes and our consciousness we came face to face with the New Jerusalem. You can immediately feel the gold energy sprouting out of this painting. It was last December, while the tragic events were unfolding in Gaza, when Verbalovich's visions materialised in a peace invocation to the world. "I was watching the news in Egypt, getting text messages from doctors who were knee deep in blood." Flying back to her home in Norway only rubbed salt in the wound, since there were demonstrations and angry people everywhere. She was so angry and upset, and wondered how she would turn her angry mood to one of compassion. "I went to bed that night, and then the next morning I heard New Jerusalem; the golden city within us." She sighed. Verbalovich's golden city had contrasting yet compelling elements. Manifested was the tree of life, its roots connecting the Kaaba with Jerusalem, and there is the golden sun which is the new dawn and is connected to the Pyramids of Giza, "which is in my opinion the biggest symbol on our planet for our consciousness, the triangle is a very powerful symbol," she said. The Pyramids, the Kaaba and Jerusalem constitute a triangle. It's the triangle that shifts. "We will find this active triangle in Kabala, Tibetan, and Sufi spiritual teachings." She called this "an active prayer for change". For Verbalovich, New Jerusalem represents the golden city of love, compassion, intent, tolerance, and the elevation of the consciousness. It does not have to exist in the material world; it is a city that we have to integrate within ourselves. To build up the canvas she used gypsum, paints, stencil and glue, and finished with oil paint to bring lushness and warmth to the painting. There was a set of two paintings on the opposite side of the wall that I could not help but notice, they were so intense. They were intellectually stimulating rather than visually bracing. They were called "The Red Thread". "I believe that we are all connected, we all have blood in our veins, and there is fire in the core of the earth," Verbalovich said. One of the set is in powerful neon colours, with a red thread dominating the centre. The other has more subtle tones of blue, with red and orange hues, and the red thread. "The Red Thread" is another personal work, but it also embodies many of the artist's themes. The human beings and the collective consciousness, and how we are all connected, are dominant themes that can be felt in this set of paintings and in the whole exhibition. The intellectual mind needs to be convinced of this unity so that one can accept that the perception of separateness is just an illusion. How does one's pain resonate in another's? "If you hate someone, you actually hate another of your own faces," she explained. I was curious which piece was Verbalovich's favourite. She said her favourite changed every day. And for that particular day it was "When the Earth Moves". "I would like to think that even if the earth moves, or the ocean flies and there is no gravity, there will be the energy of love. It is the most beautiful and solid thing that we should connect to." After she left I took another stroll in the gallery, trying to absorb all I have seen, smelt and heard. I started my tour, but this time I walked to each and every piece with reverence.
