At her debut exhibition “Belonging(s)” in Dubai, held at UrArtU Gallery in Alserkal Avenue until March 26, the emerging Tunisian-Finnish painter Dora Dalila Cheffi presents a new series of paintings that reflect her immediate surroundings, close friends and family members, and a vibrant palette that is inspired by Tunis, where she lives.

Dora Dalila Cheffi doesn’t do picture perfect. Just take a look at her figurative paintings, where she depicts people as they are: awkward, dark, moody, anatomically imperfect. Even her intuitive choice of color is unusual, as she explains that her selection of hues doesn’t have to make sense. Her paintings are almost diary-like, documenting childhood memories, joyous moments, and quiet still-lifes. Born to a Tunisian father and a Finnish mother, Cheffi, who studied art and photography, is based in coastal Tunis, a place that has greatly inspired her paintings with its everyday sights and unique architecture, feeding into her bold style of painting.

In an interview with The Sandy Times, Cheffi discusses embracing motherhood, navigating two national identities, and painting human awkwardness.

— You became a mother recently, how has it been like for you?

— Yes, almost two years ago. It has been amazing obviously and very hard at the same time. I was so used to being very free and going wherever I wanted, whenever I wanted. At least for me, there was this question of can an artist and a mom identity coexist. Do I somehow become uncool now that I am a mom and not a cool art girl? It is kind of these strange things that you think about as a woman, or maybe it is just in my head but I don’t think I am alone with that thought. With art, it is a lifestyle and there is a lot of freedom that must come while you create.

But at the same time, maybe it is a kind of romanticised idea of being an artist who drinks, smokes and works at 3 am. Is that sustainable? Is that real or just fantasy? Luckily for me, when I paint or have an idea, I am kind of fast at executing it. I don’t procrastinate that much. If I have the space and time — even three hours a day — I will calmly be able to put something together. But now, I haven’t had as much time or thoughts, because I have responsibilities that I didn’t have before. My daughter is turning two soon. She has her own routine and I have some free time during the day and then I dive into work for six hours, and then after that, I am a mom.

— Has it affected your work as a painter?

— At first, I didn’t want to be the artist who becomes a mom and then only explores motherhood. But I can’t help it, because my work comes from my immediate life and experiences. There are new people who are appearing in the paintings because before, the personalities were young women and my self-portraits. But now, this small character has entered. It isn't that I really chose to do that. It just came.

— You are both Tunisian and Finnish. Can you discuss your family background?

— I was born and raised in Helsinki, Finland. My dad is Tunisian and my mom is Finnish. He moved to Finland in the ‘80s and they met in this small town. They fell in love and were together for 10 years. They had me, and I think in the last few years of the marriage, they got divorced when I was three. After that, I had been living with my mom and my dad was very present. In a way, my mom is creative because she is a hair stylist, and my dad has a plumbing and construction company. They are both entrepreneurs in their own fields and I feel like they have both shown me a good work ethic. I have always seen them working for themselves. Every summer, I would go almost a month to Tunisia. I was familiar with Tunisia and I think my dad always enhanced the importance of culture.

Although I never lived there, I decided to move to Tunisia in 2018 because I had just finished my studies and I wanted to kind of get to know Tunisia without the family context. I thought, “Can I really be myself here?”. I made a decision that I was just going to be there by myself and that is how I built a community there of likeminded people. I feel that that healed this gap of having to be ‘half-something’ because the half is a very violent way to think of yourself, especially when you come from two different cultures.

— It sounds like there was a clash between these two identities.

— Yes, absolutely. Because, my dad somehow made it very clear that you had to choose between being Tunisian or Finnish, and I didn’t really understand that. I talk about it in some of my art pieces indirectly. There is this kind of weird question of, what does ‘Tunisian-ness’ look like and what makes a good Tunisian girl, and there were the rules you had to live by and I guess that is universal for people. But for me, it was a difficult thing to just understand that these two things can coexist and I don’t have to listen to whatever someone is thinking.

But of course with Arab culture, especially, it is very powerful and there is a lot of communities of family and it is really difficult to go against the family. But I understand my father more now that I have lived in Tunisia and I have adapted this drama back to myself. It used to make me feel that my boundaries were being crossed, but I think it also comes with age. Now, I am a woman and I do understand where my dad was coming from. I think for me, in actuality, I had to live in Tunis and see within my own eyes that I can be the same person in Finland, in Tunisia and in Dubai.

— Your work is intimate, but also feels a bit unsettling when observing your choice of loud colours and the way you depict your figures. How would you describe your work?

— My work is figurative but also intuitive and expressionistic, especially with the colours that I choose. I feel like with my paintings, there is always something a bit twisted and awkward in them. My characters aren't supposed to be realistic. I want it to be real and not real at the same time. I don’t want them to be perfect, so the proportions are a bit off. With the colours, it creates a strange atmosphere, and there is a balance between creating interesting and aesthetically pleasing, but also a tiny bit of a disturbing atmosphere. That is what I attempt to do. Sometimes I am very uncomfortable with them myself.

When I was studying painting back in Finland, my paintings were colourful. I even remember my teacher saying that I had a very specific eye for colour, and that was the first time someone had commented about my usage of colour. But it was something that gave me bravery. I don’t even know how I choose my colours. Like I said, it is like a dance of working with the colours until I am satisfied with how they look together. I really started painting in Tunis when I moved there and I had more time and space to do so. I looked around me and everything was kind of random, you would see a colourful sign and then there was a store that was blue, and then there was a door that was pink. It is very different from Finland, so I guess that kind of gave me the inspiration or the bravery to just experiment with colours.

— How has being in Tunis inspired you?

— I have been trying to explore other topics and dim down a little bit the Tunisian-ness that always comes out. In my last painting series, which I did about Finland, it ended up being kind of dark somehow. It was also the first time that I made a painting series in Finland in the middle of winter, where there was no light. But, the thing is, I am very inspired by Tunisia, especially the series here, because I started painting them in Tunis and then I finished the paintings in Finland. But, there is something about the warmth and I could talk about the sun or colour, but it isn't even about that. There is something beautifully chaotic in Tunis that I really weirdly thrive in, although sometimes it is annoying and too much. But, in Finland, everything is so curated and clean, where the houses look the same. I don’t know if I necessarily want the paintings to be so obviously set somewhere, but also, I am Tunisian, that is my home. I paint my experiences, what I see, what I live, so of course it is going to be inspired from there.

For this show, I was thinking a lot about migration. My dad obviously migrated and I migrated and I am thinking of how now we, as first generation, have different backgrounds and are going back and forth, trying to find a comfortable place, physically and mentally where we can settle and be ourselves. The curator, Yeocheva, and I were thinking about how to visualise that experience in a light way. It doesn’t have to be so dark and obvious.

— You capture specific scenes, such as a dancing woman or a view from the kitchen. What do you feel that you are trying to say through your paintings?

— I feel like I am trying to capture a certain feeling or a moment and manipulate it and maybe bring a little bit of humor into it. Maybe it is about manipulating reality a little bit. With some paintings, I have an idea of what I want to say and it could be a very big subject, but I want it to be portrayed lightly with a bit of a disturbing touch. I guess I am also commenting on my own behaviour because the painting changes every day, as my mood changes every day. If I am painting a person, someday they might look like they are smiling, and the next day, I change it. In that way, it is also quite organic. In a way, they are glimpses of everyday life and feelings. I think the best thing obviously is that everyone can interpret them as they want.