Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Exploring the Arabian Peninsula’s folk tales

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It is a unique exhibition that provides a perspective into the Arabian culture, a plunge not only into Oman’s folk tales but also of the Emirates that shaped not only children’s minds but have stayed even in the minds of today’s adults. Headlined by two Oman-based artists Debjani Bhardwaj and Rawan al Mahrouqi, the inauguration at Stal Gallery on April 1 was a perfect opportunity to get to know the artists who were excited to finally see what they work very hard for coming finally into fruition. A visit into the gallery will immerse one into stories from the past and present, passed down generations and even today play a vital role in teaching children the norms of society.


Debjani Bhardwaj is a visual storyteller, referencing traditional folk tales from GCC countries. Her works present fleeting moments, dreamlike scenes and a menagerie of peculiar characters performing impossible tasks. Rather than adhering to these folktales, she has created her own subverted emblematic language and her own mythologies.


The techniques employed were aimed at bringing to life the mystery, the magic, the bizarre, the definite and the indefinite all the same time. The evolution and final manifestation of this visual storytelling have made the journey sublime and rooted at the same time.

Rawan al Mahrouqi — a multidisciplinary contemporary artist from Oman who’s work focuses on the female experience in the Arabian Gulf, double standards, the thin line between tradition and religion and an overall social commentary paired with Debjani for the project. Rawan’s works tend to be neutral, asking questions without giving an opinion and often stating facts as they are to start a conversation.


Rawan draws most of her inspiration from her Khaleeji (Arabian Gulf) culture and the experiences she has had growing up and living in it. She has also had two curatorial experiences at Stal Gallery, Muscat and has been in 13 group exhibitions in the region and Europe. The artist is the founder of Makan.Mct a first of its kind local art school that offers a community for the arts in Muscat.


A pet project of Debjani’s, her works started a couple of years back when she was intrigued by some of the local folk tales and surprised by their absence in print. She said, “After showcasing in Dubai, I brought my project over to Muscat where I’m based and showed it to Stal Gallery. I wanted to collaborate with Rawan, a local Omani artist because not only did her work also reflect many of the morals or other social morals of today’s society but also she herself had grown up hearing many of these stories.”


Most of these stories, like the more globally known fables and fairytales, and regional tales have only survived through word of mouth. Completely absent from the world of print, these stories are slowly losing their ground and getting lost amongst modern day cartoons and storybooks.


Rawan grew up listening to these tales from her mother which her mother’s mother passed onto her. In some family gatherings, these are also shared by other women members of the house becoming a tradition that guaranteed for the stories to continue and survive. While Rawan’s work is her interpretation and representation of social morals and evils, Debjani’s research into these stories gave life back into the characters through her visual representations of the characters.


Many of the stories feature characters like no other, Jinns (ghosts), animals, and anthropomorphic creatures — half human, half animal, and they in most lights are projected as “evil” characters that punish. In Debjani’s work, she has given these characters features and a face and portrayed them in a friendlier, more playful way.

These folk tales are cautionary, moral tales so that people listen to them and they behave in a certain way — following the norms of the society. These are narrated orally and have changed over the years. Without physical records of these stories, there is a constant fear that these stories will someday be lost.


One of the aims behind the exhibition is to not only portray these stories but also keep them alive by creating a record of the characters and their stories.


“Our folks’ tales, although told in every Omani and Arabian household are even today mostly left undocumented. There are a few, privately published books that document these stories but the accessibility of these isn’t easy. Being privately produced, they are a collector’s item that has only reached those that have gone looking for the sake of research. They’re getting lost,” said Rawan.


Most of the works that are displayed at the exhibition are manually done. Hand cut and hand painted, except a couple of pieces which Debjani used the help of laser cutting to test out its potential, especially to cut out thicker materials or bigger pieces. Debjani laboured through her creative process solely using blades, paper and paints. It gives the work an old-timey feel which is perfect for the theme of the exhibition which tells tales from ancient times.


“I’ve used paper cutouts because it’s a very transient medium and there are shadows and these are things that depict transience and ephemeral things like these orally told tales which can be easily erased and often have shadowy presence whilst being delicate and often change as time passes. Which is why in this exhibition, I’ve used this medium along with toys to share my representation of these tales,” Debjani shared.


While Debjani’s work focused on the tales themselves, Rawan’s work is a social commentary using these characters. Both wanted to communicate that overall, it isn’t about a specific folk tale, but more focused on this fear that today exists in society.


The also wanted to communicate that while the characters look normal at first, a closer look into them would usually reveal different details that a single glance usually cannot capture. The works exhibit a deformity that makes them stand out in an off-putting kind of way.


Some illustrations have groups talking, or talking about someone — a lot to do with whispering and gossiping. Passing judgement, like the jinn, people are always afraid of what they’re saying, talking, spreading within the community.


“My interpretation is different from Debjani’s. While hers are a direct interpretation of the stories, my work is more of a social commentary of these tales. I look at the definition of the word Jinn in Arabic, which translates to “beings around us that can’t be seen but we are afraid of.” I used this and interpreted it into what I think people in our society are most afraid of ‘What will people say’,” Rawan said.

“Our (Debjani and Rawan) focus isn’t just on displaying our works, but to get our visitors and their kids interested, intrigued and curious about these mystical creatures and their tales. Although these are just our representations, we hope that this will spark their curiosity and maybe push them to do research about tales from this region’s past. Visual art has the ability to not only capture your attention but make you question them, the characters and how they came to be,” both artists said.


The exhibition is currently running at the Stal Gallery from 10 am to 7 pm on weekdays for the next couple of weeks. To see more of the artists’ works, follow @stalgallery on Instagram.


TITASH CHAKRABORTY


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