Syrian artist and scholar Sawsan Al Bahar holds her first-ever solo exhibition at Firetti Contemporary Gallery in Alserkal Avenue is a riveting investigation of memory and home.
The exhibition, Talaliya, consists of an impressive installation and eight detailed drawings. The works address issues of immigration, things that should have been, and how they influence what is, both individually and collectively.
According to Al Bahar, “For me, this is what I’ve inherited from home.” These are the remaining foods that I have. I, therefore, made an effort to gather them all in one location.
Al Bahar frequently examines the theme of home from various angles. He most recently won the Massimiliano Galliani Prize for Drawing at the 17th ArtVerona in Italy.
After her grandfather passed away five years ago, Al Bahar’s mother gave her the memoir. Al Bahar was delighted to have a documented account of her grandfather’s experiences but also aware of her obligation because so much of Arab culture, tradition, and history are carried down orally.
One of Al Samhoury’s earlier chapters is the one Al Bahar used for the exhibit. He describes his childhood in Jaffa, including going to school, playing with friends, and receiving a poetry award. They describe a utopian childhood in numerous ways.
The following section of the same chapter details his abrupt escape from Jaffa for Damascus in 1947, when he was 12 years old, together with his mother and six younger sisters. It took another 70 years for Al Bahar’s grandpa to be allowed to go back to Palestine.
The chapter describes the striking contrast between his previous life in Palestine and his new one in Syria, where he had to work to provide for his family because his father, who remained there, was unable to travel with them.
Al Bahar looked up images of these places in digital archives and other works of documentation about Palestine until she came upon ones that spoke to her. Al Bahar created the second and most important part of her exhibition by weaving together threads from her grandfather’s memoir with the images she discovered. The resulting drawings are intricate and delicate. Al Bahar’s memories of her mother and her own personal experiences are also combined in the paintings.
Al Bahar used a meticulous, time-consuming approach to create these welcoming pictures, preparing the paper with the goal of conveying nostalgia and fading memories.
The exhibition transforms into an intergenerational discussion of recorded and shared personal tales of location, time, and home when it surrounds and faces the installation.
Talaliya, an exhibition by Sawsan Al Bahar, is on view through November 25 at the Firetti Contemporary gallery on Alserkal Avenue.