Artist Shibir & The Alert Eye

Written by Prof. Hussein Gamman

Here lies the magical eye—between man and apparition, between water and dry land, between fire and clay. Here is the scent of felt history and the dreamlike vision revolving between homeland, nostalgia, and proximity. Formations, implicit or explicit, unfold, while others display themselves on stretched canvas. Stitching consistency on sealed lips. At times, it compels a collision of excited sorrow—grief and pleasure penetrating the land, or the shuffle between both. In every case, the eye emerges as a prominent phenomenon in all artworks, cooing or prostrating. Within both realms, it remains the most honest in letters or symbols.

I linger on the human eye as it narrates tales of sorrow, transforming into tragedy, longing, or flashing within the muscles of permanent pleasure. I wander through a garden, wrapping colors around my waist like veins of varying shapes and textures, surrendering to my fate as a powerless convict. Do eyes possess an articulated language, like the tongue? The eyes entangled in the depths of Shibir’s masterpieces compel us to explore. The beautifully shaded lenses conceal details of landscapes and portraits, of kindness and destitution. The eyes of a loved one resemble a bundle of jasmine—the lids are petals, the lashes restless butterflies shading the horizon of tenderness. The loving eye tells novels of longing, devotion, and fondness. A single tender gaze contains a sumptuous alphabet, enough to fill books for patient writers.

The language of the eye has inspired Shibir’s mastery of fluent expression. At last, he has grasped the implicit textures of momentous features. The richness of dimension, contrasted against light, is harmoniously acknowledged within the human forms he depicts. Both the awe-inspiring and the tame creatures roam within his color compositions, breathing life into the three-dimensional space, mastering both vision and circumstance. The emancipated plane and the interplay of light occur simultaneously, forming a recurring phenomenon in his artwork. A close examination of Shibir’s work reveals this connection. He has practiced both carving—where the fusion of elements is visible to the naked eye—and painting, where adhesion is more restrained. Yet, his resourceful talent has sharpened his artistic vision, allowing him to bridge the subtle relationships between mediums.

Shibir has consistently succeeded in materializing both worlds, proving his comprehensive artistic awareness. These reflections, paired with Shibir’s profound exploration of the eye, form the core of an intentional artistic inquiry. His masterpieces embody fluency and spontaneity, arousing the curiosity of the discerning viewer. Yet, Shibir’s artistic maturity operates independently, untethered to traditional norms or rigid fundamentals. His inspiration stems from an internal obsession with the richness of color and the explicit power of form. At the height of his artistic awareness, he deliberately studies the human eye—a sharp, fluent gaze, rationally shaped by context, language, and symbolism, alternating between darkness and light. The rays emerging from his vision transcend what is conceivable, enhancing the total value of his work. His manipulation of light creates a graduated aura in color expression, positioning the eyes at commanding angles.

This deliberate gradation first appears in the eyes of Shibir’s subjects, exposing them in dramatic postures—the intense stare of a child, the cunning eyes of a burglar, the unyielding gaze of a murderer, or the hazy, love-stricken eyes sending a visible signal of adoration. This is the inexpressible language of the eye, present at different thresholds, enriching the dramatic narratives Shibir selects. Light and shadow alternate or collaborate, fortifying artistic composition and intensifying the impression sought by the artist’s subconscious.
Shibir’s work captures elements of the animal, plant, and human worlds. His paintings may depict suspended skeletons with protruding eyes—grief-stricken within a symphony of color—harmonized or contrasted, yet maintaining a rhythmic consistency with their forms. His drawings evade monotony, embracing variety to achieve a deeply human texture. Viewers are encouraged to wander through the entanglements of his intelligent compositions, disappearing and reappearing in surprise at human countenances shaded with mystery and moonlit awareness. His work fuses material form with authenticity, echoing his spirit of beauty and his flawless execution across painting, architecture, construction, and graphic design. Through his art, Shibir articulates his artistic philosophy with clarity.
For Shibir, a plain surface, a line, a texture, light, and color together compose the very essence of a soul—one devoted entirely to art.

The result is a distinct and invigorating expression of existence, unparalleled except in the passion of an artist whose uniqueness manifests in the harmony of hospitality, wit, and clay construction, forging an intimate bond between color and form.

Over the course of his long artistic journey—fluctuating between northern and southern Sudan, then traversing Germany and the four corners of Europe—Shibir never remained static amid the shifting tides of modernity. Yet, he retained the soul of Sudanese authenticity in both theme and form. His paintings and carvings preserve the essence of his homeland. The pivotal events chronicled in his diary and sketchbooks symbolize Sudanese life in remarkable detail. His memory harbors the splendor of the southern regions—the Shuluk clans, the cattle-rearing traditions, the customs woven into the fabric of Nilotic tribes. These elements have seamlessly filtered into his artistic vocabulary, enriching his expression with new languages and fresh nuances.

For Shibir, sincerity has always been at the heart of every artistic pursuit, as the philosophers believe. Just as meaningful conversation exists between an active tongue and a silent listener, so too does one experience Shibir’s silence—permeating his artwork, shaping the atmosphere, and exploding into color at his fingertips. Through his art, he weaves narratives of imagined perspectives, symbols, time, space, fact, and contrast. His use of symbolism, masterfully applied in both fine and applied arts, unites human, animal, and avian forms. His signature, resembling the skeleton of a fish or a silent bird seeking a path to a distant horizon, encapsulates his boundless artistic vision. His works, like living beings, endure the strenuous phases of creation, ultimately emerging as vivid entities imbued with life.

The renowned artist Picasso once said:
"How can we expect a viewer to experience one of my works as I did? A painting comes to me from miles and miles away. Who, then, can truly perceive the vision and depiction I lay upon a flat surface? Even I may not recognize my work the next day. Who can penetrate my dreams, my instincts, my desires—the thoughts I have brooded over for so long, only for them to surface at last into daylight? Above all, who among them can grasp the obsessions I sought to manifest, even against my own inclinations?"

Prof. Hussein Gamman

Previous Dean and Head of College of Fine & Applied Art, Khartoum (Sudan)