SARA EL-JAZARA
Sara El-Jazara is an art historian, researcher, and archivist whose practice explores the intersections of art, memory, and resistance in the Arab world. Her work engages with the politics of the archive, tracing fragmented histories and artistic practices as acts of preservation and collective reclamation.
A graduate of Marist College in Florence, Italy, El-Jazara’s professional experience spans research, archiving, editing, curation, gallery management, and art consultancy.
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Sustainable Art Practices in the Arab WorldTalk
oct. 2022
Mona Hatoum - “Nablus Soap” (1996), nabulsi soap, nails.
Photo by George Al-KhouryThe Holy Quran, c.1851, ink and opaque watercolors and gold on paper; leather binding (Turkiye)Nabil Anani - “Exit into the Light” (1989), leather and henna on woodVera Tamari - “Dialogue” (1995), clayTaysir Barakat - "My Father" (1997), burning on wood, found drawer (remnants left by the occupation) Sliman Mansour - “Old Friends” (2000), clay on woodFarid Belkahia - “AlQuds” (Jerusalem), (1994), dye on leatherA swan-necked glass bottle, 19th century, attributed to Iran.Nuha Al-Radi - “Portrait of Zeina Habou” (left) “Portrait of Aysar Aqrawi and Adnan Habou” (right), (1995), found metal box and painted stoneSaloua Raouda Choucair - “Poem” (1965), woodFarid Belkahia in his studio (2010). Behind him are artworks made of leather and natural dyes.
SUSTAINABLE ART PRACTICES
IN THE ARAB WORLD
Public Talk
Commissioned by Remote Closeness
22. Oct. 22
At the heart of this talk, I argued that due to capitalism and colonialist tendencies, Arab art has strayed from its own history – in which it was common practice to be “sustainable,” while questioning what it means to be “sustainable” in this day and age. Art from the region has a long history of interacting with the local surrounding environment in order to create as opposed to modern-day (Western) painting, which could be considered a sort of technology due to the heavily industrially manufactured nature of its materials.
Through a general survey of art, I focused on art made using natural materials such as wood, leather, copper, clay, palm leaf, stone, pearl, glass and natural dyes and pigments, rather than the industrially manufactured art materials of the West like acrylic paint, easels and brushes.
I focused on Morocco, Palestine, and Iraq, and highlighted the varied political, social, and economic factors that led artists to work through a “sustainable” lens, albeit without necessarily knowing they were taking part in “sustainability.” For example, the Palestinian New Vision Group of 1987 took part in a boycott of all Israeli imported products as part of the First Intifada leading them to adopt more local ways of creating art. Vera Tamari used clay reliefs to tell pre-Nakba stories, Tayseer Barakat took on a more experimental approach of burning wood, Sliman Mansour began using mud, and Nabil Anani began dying leather with henna. I compared there practice of returning to the land to Mona Hatoum’s diasporic exploration of hair, and by greater extension -- the self, as a medium.
In Morocco, the Casablanca Group (1962-1987) was formed by young artists who studied and trained abroad in Western capitals like Paris, Rome, and Florence -- upon their return, they preferred and promoted working with local Moroccan materials such as leatherworking, carpet weaving, embroidery, pottery, metal/coppersmithing, wood and stone carving, ceramics, and tile making as a celebration of Moroccan visual culture. They saw one of the biggest challenges of the postcolonial era was restoring the local cultural heritage. Deeply convinced that art is an inseparable part of our heritage as a society they sought out to create art as a form of popular expression. For instance, Mohammed Melehi resigned from using canvas and oil paints, instead he painted on found materials, like jute sacks. Farid Belkahia used calfskin leather, saffron and henna, materials he referred to as from the “Virgin Terrain.”
Suffering sanctions and embargos as a result of on-going war, Iraqi artists resorted to using found materials during the 80s. Nuha al-Radi, who kept a daily memoir during the war, would paint on rocks to create faces and various found remnants such as cans, blown-up car parts, pipes and canisters to create bodies to create war-time portraits of the people she knew. Similarly, Hanaa Malallah would transform destroyed remnants into poetic messages of hope, such as taking the burnt and broken-legged student’s reading desk and inserting a single filament of light.