In her second solo exhibition, "Tales of the Badia," visual artist Enas Al-Sharafat revives details from a deeply rooted Bedouin way of life, presenting them anew through color, line, and composition, in an artistic experience that evokes both people and place, along with the customs, values, and details tied to them that remain alive in memory.
اضافة اعلان
The exhibition, held under the patronage of Dr. Hussein Daghaimat, director of the Institute of Fine Arts at the Ministry of Culture, ran for one day at the Fakhr Al-Nisaa Hall in the Royal Cultural Center. It presented a collection of works drawing on the Bedouin environment and its imagery, from the tent, horses, women, and faces, to details of place and nature, within an artistic vision that goes beyond simply recording a scene to explore its human and social meanings.
Al-Sharafat's works move between past and present, recalling images from a life tied to land, movement, and migration, but presenting them through a contemporary vision that turns memory into a visual subject open to reflection and interpretation. For her, a painting isn't a literal transcription of an old scene, but an attempt to recapture the feeling a place left in a person.
Daghaimat affirmed that the Ministry of Culture is committed to showcasing the creative talents of Jordanian artists, supporting artistic and cultural activity, and providing spaces for artists to present their work and connect with the public, noting the importance of works rooted in the local environment, heritage, and memory in strengthening the presence of Jordanian cultural and artistic identity.
Al-Sharafat said her choice of the Bedouin environment stemmed from her connection to the human and heritage-rich details it carries, explaining that "Tales of the Badia" is an attempt to revive scenes that have stayed in her memory and turn them into artworks carrying the spirit and details of that place.
She explained that the presence of the tent, horses, women, and faces in her work is tied to the values and meanings these elements represent, such as belonging, generosity, solidarity, and freedom, noting that color, for her, isn't just an aesthetic element, but a means of evoking a sense of place and expressing memory and human emotion.
She noted that art can preserve a part of cultural memory, especially amid the shifts that have affected many traditional ways of life, believing that reinterpreting heritage through a contemporary artistic language gives it a chance to reach new generations without losing its distinctiveness.
In the works on display, the tent appears as the center of life, a place for dwelling, hospitality, and gathering, while horses appear as part of the image of the Badia and its connection to horsemanship, movement, and freedom.
Women, meanwhile, take on a presence tied to home, family, customs, and daily details, while faces are given special space, as carriers of people's memories and stories.
Al-Sharafat doesn't present the Bedouin environment merely as a geographic scene, but focuses on its relationship with people. In her paintings, place is shaped by the details of the lives people lived within it, their relationships, customs, and ways of connecting with one another, and by the small things that made up the rhythm of their days.
Color plays a central role in building this vision, as shades of earth and sand, and the colors of sky, night, and fire, help shape the visual and emotional mood of the work. Color becomes a means of evoking a particular time, stirring a feeling tied to an image, a moment, or an old memory.
In this way, the painting comes to feel more like an emotional document, preserving what a conventional document cannot, such as the feeling of a place, the features of its people, the warmth of a gathering, and the details of daily life.
Al-Sharafat treats heritage as material open to reinterpretation, not a fixed image of the past. She revives its elements, then reorganizes them within a contemporary artistic language, placing them before the viewer in a new context that preserves their spirit while opening the door to different readings.
The title "Tales of the Badia" carries clear significance for the experience, as tales were once part of social life, passed from one generation to the next through gatherings, homes, and tents, preserving images of people, places, values, and experiences.
In Al-Sharafat's exhibition, the tale moves from oral narration to the canvas, with color becoming a language of storytelling, and line a means of recovering detail.
A number of attendees noted that the exhibition offered a striking artistic experience in evoking the Bedouin environment, through works that combined artistic aesthetics with the specificity of local memory, affirming that Al-Sharafat succeeded in turning the elements of place and people into paintings that go beyond a direct scene, opening space for the viewer to reflect and interpret.
The experience carries particular significance amid the changes that have affected many traditional ways of life, as some details that were once part of daily life have become tied more to memory than to the present. Here, art steps in to preserve those details and give them a new presence.
Ultimately, in "Tales of the Badia," Enas Al-Sharafat revives part of the memory of place and people, but doesn't confine it to a closed past, instead presenting it as a memory capable of living on in the present.
The painting doesn't just preserve the scene itself, but preserves its imprint on people, giving the tale another chance to continue through color.
Resource: Al-Ghad. Reporting: Ahmad Al-Shawabkeh
