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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

“A Fragment of Feelings” taps into old things and nostalgia

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Staff Reporter


For an artist like Zahra al Ghatrifi, regardless of the many challenges of the pandemic, it is important to look at the positive side of things explaining that many of the artists were provided with an amazing opportunity to connect with what's important to them and translate the human experience to art.


“When we were made to stay at home due to either quarantine or because of the lockdown, I think the artists were the biggest beneficiary as the isolation and time, looking at the positive side of things, allowed them to reflect and exploit the opportunity and translate into a fruitful production of artistic and creative work," Zahra said.


The opportunity to be stuck at home allowed Zahra to look inward and resulted in an art exhibit currently on display at Bait al Zubair.


"In this exhibit, there are three sets of artworks all having their own series. I used materials that can be recycled from wood to fabric crumbs including decaying materials from nature as well as items from my father's old house in Al Aqr in Nizwa. These items carried with them memories and stories of intrinsic values that deserved to be told," she shared.


"I think this is important because as humans, we are a group of feelings, a collection of stories from our past creating an amalgam of who we are today," she added.


Zahra is showcasing more than thirty contemporary artworks — an intelligent use and mixture of materials put on different frames and canvases using earthy and vibrant colours.


Titled "A Fragment of Feelings," the displayed artworks have a deep human dimension to appreciate and highlight the values and achievements of the old generation. She brought back stories of the past through vibrations that she felt in her hands while carrying the remains of wood and heritage pieces, in addition to some old embroidered fabrics from the closet of her mother and grandmother.


In some of her works, Zahra employed the remains of an old tool she had taken from her father's farm called Al Manjour — a serrated wooden wheel that rotates around an axis called (Hataba Al Manjour), where the animal is constantly dragging the rope back and forth in an inclined path.


Laila al Najjar, the exhibition curator, said, "The use of the Al Manjour has a philosophical and profound human dimension more than just using it in the artwork as an ancient material. The artist sheds light on the simple and primitive man's thought at that time in finding smart and creative solutions to improve life in the manufacture, and creative thought in the design and engineering of Al Manjour as a tool to be used to facilitate the process of extracting water from the well and developing productivity.


Al Najjar added, "In addition to this, the artist reflects core values, which are the principle of charity and patience, which the generation of grandparents and fathers who planted a fruitful present with their own hands. The artist was able to convey this feeling and evoke that warm time by presenting the subject in a contemporary artistic style. Due to that we curated this exhibition in a special way that fits and harmonizes the subject matter of the showcased works, where we used lamps instead of lighting, to let the audience live and indulge the atmosphere of the past and its warm stories tailored in the details of each painting in Gallery Sarah."


Zahra has been a member of the Oman Society of Fine Arts (OSFA) since 2003 and participated in almost all the exhibitions of OSFA and The Omani Youth Studio as well. She has won many local awards and her works had been part of the collection of some governmental and private institutions and individuals.


The exhibition was opened under the patronage of the Honorable Lujaina bint Mohsen Darwish, Member of the State Council and will run until April 7, 2022, at Gallery Sarah, Muscat.


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