Memorial for Maat 2016

Alaa Awad's mural, *Memorial for Maat,* is painted directly onto a wall, and it vibrates with the energy of a bold, linear style. It's all about the immediacy, the artist letting loose with a confident hand, not fussing over details but letting the forms emerge through the act of painting itself. The color palette is both earthy and electric. Notice the ochre and red of the figures against the watery blue ground. This creates a sense of depth and movement, like figures emerging from the mists of time. The texture is raw. You can see the strokes, the drips, the way the paint sits on the wall, each mark loaded with intention. That one leaping horse, frozen mid-stride, carries so much of the mural's weight and spirit. It's a testament to the enduring power of the past and its impact on the present, in conversation with artists like Faith Ringgold who similarly embrace the cultural richness of the past to make sense of the present. Art, like memory, is never truly finished, but is instead an ongoing layering of experience.