The spirituality of the month of Ramadan is not limited merely to fasting and praying. The Muslim way of worship goes beyond the conceptual level to a more transcendental one. Islam requires believers to look carefully at God’s creations and admire their originality and their natural magnificence. In observing beauty, people are to find answers; Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in fact said: “The Lord is beautiful and loves beauty.” And so Jeddah artists have united at the Jeddah Atelier this Ramadan to present their works in an exhibition entitled “Ramadaniyat.” This is the fourth consecutive Ramadan in which Atelier has mounted an exhibition.
This year’s exhibition includes a large number of artists — Saudis as well as other Arabs. It is not limited to any certain school or method. It features sculptors, ceramic works, Arabic calligraphy and even pop art. The exhibition’s diversity not only derives from the different techniques and nationalities of the artists but also from the artists’ differing generations. “Though the main theme is Ramadan, artists were not obliged to present works specific to Ramadan; we left the choice to them,” said Jeddah Atelier manager, Hisham Kindeel.
Many of the featured artists chose to refer to Ramadan indirectly with displays tending toward the meditative and spiritual mood of the month. The well-known Saudi pioneer artist, Abdul Halim Radawi, caught the spirit of the holy month with a very expressive yellowish painting showing a huge crowd of human shapes, gathered around a mosque that is surrounded by mountains on all sides.
Among the highlights are works by two Egyptian calligraphers, Mustafa Khudir and Majdi Khudir. They present, through Arabic calligraphy, verses of the Qur’an ornamented with Islamic designs. Samiah Khashogji’s triple paintings, displayed beside each other with no space between them, look as if they are telling some woman’s tale. In all three paintings, a crescent appears in a dominant red. There are also groups of covered women with blank faces, devoid of any expression. Their body language suggests they are in some kind of trance. Their empty expressions add a further Islamic dimension to the painting as they hint at the unity of all humans in the eyes of God.“ I chose a golden color to enhance the glow of faith on the believers’ faces,” explained Khashogji.
Mosques and worshippers are central to the paintings that follow a Ramadan theme. Each artist, however, added his or her own personal touch to their perception of such a religious topic. Domes and minarets are there but in diverse shapes and forms.
There are other works that are outside the Ramadan theme though they carry a human touch that hints at the holy month. In her ceramic work, Susan Al-Sayegh skillfully structured a number of faces. “In my ceramic faces representing different ethnic groups, I wanted to point to the unity of the human race, regardless of different looks,” she said.
Egyptian painter and Jeddah resident Marwa Al-Sharif prefers to present Egyptian folklore in all its simplicity and richness. In her painting, Al-Sharif successfully depicts workday Egyptian women villagers. “It looks very alive and real, you can literally hear the women chatting and giggling while carrying those baskets on their heads,” one visitor commented.
An unusual artistic work belongs to this year’s guest-of- honor, Saudi artist Bakur Shaykhon. The work which belongs to what is called the pop art school is neither a painting nor a sculpture. It is a wooden stand in the shape of a right angle. The stand is covered with a copy of two different articles from an Arabic newspaper. The top part of the stand is covered with a political article whereas the bottom is covered with one related to art. When asked the meaning of his work, Shaykhon grabbed a chair, put it on the stand and sat on it. He stepped forcefully on the bottom with the top behind him. The gesture caused both shock and surprise to exhibition visitors who asked if had deliberately stepped on the art section of the work. “Yes that’s exactly the message behind my work,” he told them.
Shaykhon explained that over the past few years, he had searched to reconcile the opposites in life. Typical art did not appeal to him or satisfy his desire to search for something real and concrete, beyond the imaginative world. “In my artistic career I have been searching for something of use,” he said. He pointed to the top section which carried the newspaper’s political report and said, “I found that of use!” Perhaps Shaykhon’s constant search for meaning is analogous to God’s asking humans to wonder, think and use their minds to find answers that will lead them to belief.
Jeddah Atelier has managed to bring together a collection of works of art under one roof in the holy month of Ramadan. Visitors should come, wander and indulge themselves in a journey that awakens the human and the artistic inside them. The exhibition runs until the end of Ramadan.