Nairobi,
Monday, 24 June, 2024
By McCreadie Andias
Her hands are full of magic, her brilliance is unmatched, her paints charms the eyes but more of it, they carry a deep story of African tradition, a message of peace and justice in her home country and a cry for women rights . Her name is Julian Abul Oyay Deng,a 30 year old South Sudanese Paint queen.
Born in 1986 at a small village in Gambello, Ethiopia. She was later raised in her home country in South Sudan. Abul was inspired to paint by the works of her grandmother who used to practice traditional arts and crafts which the little girl developed love and passion for .
She would Later transform her charm for painting as a profession in 2012 while studying in the UK where she launched a number of exhibitions displaying a variety of her work to the public.Ardent admirers fell in love with her work and she would often hold street exhibitions selling shirts to raise money for charity.
Her works show the dynamics of conflict in South Sudan, she also paints to bring to light the past, present and hope for the future of South Sudan and its stability.
Abul alongside a group of inspired youths founded the “Anataban, a collective of creatives and artists in South Sudan who use their art as a platform to advocate for peace and justice for the Youth . Ana taban In Arabic means” I am tired” a revelation on their aims of bringing an end to violence that has been trolling the world’s newest country.
In 2016, Abul led a group of visual artists in a street art exercise where they managed to complete over a dozen murals on walls and containers across the city. This was one of their aims to ensure the City was glowing with messages of peace and justice. Later in 2019,Abul founded the Baobab Art Foundation with the aim of fostering creation and development of artistic skills as well as advocating for peace, justice and stability in South Sudan.
One uniquely exciting feature about Abul’s paintings is that they are inspired by women, especially the elderly. This was more evident in March 8,2017 when she used paint to create vivid images that portrays the plight of elderly women in South Sudanese communities where she grew up.
“If you look at all the wrinkles that she has, it symbolises the time she lived, the wisdom, the knowledge she gained all the time she had lived” says abul as she describes one of her paintings displayed at Logali Exhibition house in Juba.
Having grown with her grandmother, Abul says she was inspired to address issues touching on elder women in her paintings as well as the impact of conflict that have exposed the aged to unspeakable plight in South Sudan, she explains that her pieces on elderly persons illustrate the pain they have endured and unfortunate passing without sharing their wisdom and knowledge to the successive generation.
In some of her paintings she vividly illustrates figures of elderly women with wrinkling skin. “They represent wisdom and beauty and the wrinkles have timeless stories that I have witnessed” she says.
Abul advocates for improved status for the elderly, better care, respect and protecting for these “assets of knowledge”
Abul is currently a student at the United States International University (USIU) in Nairobi where she is Pursuing a degree in peace and conflict studies, a tool that she hopes would sharpen her aims towards advocating for a peaceful South Sudan.
Abul is seemingly evident as a symbol of new hope In the country that has seen the worst case of humanity in recent years, her brilliance in art is changing the game.