MULHIMA ملهمة
In Arabic, "mulhima" (مُلْهِمَة) is the feminine adjective for “inspirer”, “one who inspires”, or “muse”.
At MULHIMA, an arts project by London-based writer and artist Sukaina, she creates hand-drawn A5 Giclée art prints, art postcards, lino-printed journals, hand-built ceramics, zines and loom-woven jewellery coasters.
Sukaina is self-taught and her work is an extension of her poetry and writing, often depicting the performing arts: stage scapes, soliloquy, concert, poetry readings and glamour. Sukaina is also interested in depicting the exotic, the muse, esotericism, myth, mysticism, the baroque and ancient civilisation across the Orient and Arabia. She has an academic background in Anthropology and, in her writing, has been longlisted for the Azhar Writing Prize and shortlisted for the Bloomsbury Mentorship Prize.
Featured Collection, A5 Prints:
“Poetry through Sketches”
Inspired by Sukaina’s poetry, this series illustrates poetry through sketches.
This illustration depicts a woman in a billowing hijab and a Schiaperelli gown giving an Oscar acceptance speech. The found poem below captures the intensity of the moment, agape at her realised dreams, aghast at the painful path she trod to get to the pinnacle of her success.
*Not sold with frame
[Please note mockup image larger than true size]
Size: A5
Paper Type: Hahnemühle German Etching
Printing Method: Giclée
Substrate Weight: 310gsm
Product size: 5.8x8.3in
A woman delivers a soliloquy in a kasbah garden in Marrakesh, against a backdrop of date palms and night stars. She is dressed in stage clothing and is delivering the lines written below- an excerpt from one of Sukaina’s poems. Also available as a postcard.
*Not sold with frame.
[Please note mockup image larger than true size]
Size: A5
Paper Type: Hahnemühle German Etching
Printing Method: Giclée
Substrate Weight: 310gsm
Product size: 5.8x8.3in
An Arab woman is depicted as a woman from the earth, set in the haze of 1970s Morocco. She has leaves sprouting from her hair and a headpiece with a central focus on gemstones dropping in the centre to her forehead. We do not know her name but she refers to herself as ‘Earth Girl’. Also available as a postcard.
*Not sold with frame.
[Please note mockup image larger than true size]
Size: A5
Paper Type: Hahnemühle German Etching
Printing Method: Giclée
Substrate Weight: 310gsm
Product size: 5.8x8.3in
Featured Collection, A5 Prints:
“Taghazout Water Series”
Taghazout lies on Morocco’s Western Atlantic coast. Expect tea vendors combing its beaches with giant portable tea pots, swaying palms, old medinas littering the coast and rolling aqua waves crashing against the shore.
Continued in the Taghazout Water Series is the goggles left behind the anonymous swimmer. Her goggles are left floating in a blue expanse and we do not know where she has gone. This illustration is emblamatic of the vastness of the sea and the futility of human adaptations which can silently and gracefully be swallowed by the sheer force of water.
*Not sold with frame.
[Please note mockup image larger than true size]
Size: A5
Paper Type: Hahnemühle German Etching
Printing Method: Giclée
Substrate Weight: 310gsm
Product size: 5.8x8.3in
Tagahazout is depicted in its simplicity. A solitary wave and two birds flying away from the shore. This is ode to small joys, pleasure and the simplicity of Morocco’s coastal life in comparison to the bustle and rush of the Medina.
*Not sold with frame.
[Please note mockup image larger than true size]
Size: A5
Paper Type: Hahnemühle German Etching
Printing Method: Giclée
Substrate Weight: 310gsm
Product size: 5.8x8.3in
A swimmer is depicted in Taghazout, Morocco’s Western coast. The femininty of her depiction is captured by exaggerated eyelashes, however the harsh, cubist angular lines offset this, suggesting a quiet strength and command.
*Not sold with frame.
[Please note mockup image larger than true size]
Size: A5
Paper Type: Hahnemühle German Etching
Printing Method: Giclée
Substrate Weight: 310gsm
Product size: 5.8x8.3in
Featured Collection, A5 Prints:
“The Art of Storytelling”
With each drawing comes a written backdrop, a world brought to life through the art of storytelling.
It’s 1960s Morocco and the sun is high. The Kasbah walls appear red and looming, but behind them lies a secret. The women are delivering monologues and soliloquies; rehearsals don’t finish until the sun, reaching its zenith begins to sink into the horizon once again… Also available as a postcard.
*Not sold with frame.
[Please note mockup image larger than true size]
Size: A5
Paper Type: Hahnemühle German Etching
Printing Method: Giclée
Substrate Weight: 310gsm
Product size: 5.8x8.3in
Sukaina illustrated Fairouz when writing the script for her first solo poetry show which she only initially performed to her family. She illustrated herself on stage delivering a monologue which she then decided to use as a depiction of Fairuz, imagined in 1990s Beirut.
*Not sold with frame.
[Please note mockup image larger than true size]
A5 Print
Size: A5
Paper Type: Hahnemühle German Etching
Printing Method: Giclée
Substrate Weight: 310gsm
Product size: 5.8x8.3in
A mysterious fashion stylist is adjusting cameras and lighting between the pyramids of Giza. She creates a test photo, but the lighting is off, and the backdrop is grainy. We never see the final shot of her subject in adjusted lighting.
*Not sold with frame.
[Please note mockup image larger than true size]
Size: A5
Paper Type: Hahnemühle German Etching
Printing method: Giclée
Substrate Weight: 310gsm
Product size: 5.8x8.3in
Featured Collection, Crafts:
“Sultanah Rituals”
Loom-woven jewellery coasters, ceramic dried flower bath scoops, lino-printed journals. Here’s to the rituals that make the woman.
Part of the Sultanah Rituals collection, this hand-built dried jasmine scoop for your bathing ritual is painted with acrylic and glazed with resin.
NOTE: This spoon is not for the consumption of food, as the resin surface is toxic for human ingestion. Strictly use as a scoop for dried flowers or as a display ornament. This item is fragile; please handle it delicately.
Part of the Sultanah Rituals collection is the loom-woven jewellery coaster with navy cotton. Use this for precious stones or to lay out your jewellery for the next day.
Part of the Sultanah Rituals Collection is the lino-printed journal with a Rosebud illustration in Black ink. Small plain brown paper interior with 40 sheets (80 pages) for writing and sketching.
arabian // the kasbah// seashells// the prose// gazelle musk// feminine// date palm// cascading// waterfalls// kohl// fessi// henna// archaic// muse// ancient// golden// bangles// anthropology// emerald ring// bronze// frankincense// crushed powder// soliloquy// esoteric/////