The Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts is opening the exhibition "When Clay Becomes a Body," a solo show by Jordanian artist Khuzama Abu Jouda, on Thursday, September 17, 2026, at 7:00 PM, in Wasel Gallery / Building 2, running through October 8, 2026.
اضافة اعلان
The exhibition features a collection of ceramic works the artist has shaped over the years, each distilling multiple phases of life and its transformations, from pain and resilience to fracture and strength, and from experience and joy to achievement and hope. Every piece carries the trace of a stage, the memory of a moment, revealing the artist's intimate relationship with clay as a living material that retains the marks of what it has been through.
For Abu Jouda, clay isn't merely a material for shaping, but an extension of her being, her memory, and her inner world, a medium that reaches what words fail to express. Each piece begins with a direct physical encounter between her hands and the clay; she tears it, pulls it, presses it, and reshapes it again and again, letting her emotions seep into the material and leave their mark on its surface.
That's why the cracks, breaks, and worn textures aren't hidden, but become an essential part of the work's truth and identity.
This journey unfolds across three main sculptural series: the "Tulip Series" evokes the act of blooming as a moment of birth, renewal, and transformation, its forms suspended between closure and openness, as though carrying within their structure a constant possibility of new beginnings.
The "Horizon Series," meanwhile, moves toward depth and layering, with each surface revealing what lies beneath it, a nod to the memories and experiences through which the human self is continuously shaped.
In the "Bull Series," strength, defiance, and resilience take form in cracked bodies that carry the traces of what they've endured yet remain steady and cohesive. Here, breaking isn't the opposite of strength, but the very place from which it begins.
Fire then completes what the artist's hands began, turning the fragile clay into a solid form, without erasing the marks of pressure and fracture. Instead, it sets and preserves them, so the surface remains a witness to the material's journey and transformation.
Through "When Clay Becomes a Body," Khuzama Abu Jouda speaks of clay the way one might speak of a human being; of fragility and strength, anger and memory, and the capacity to reshape oneself and remain whole despite everything that has broken within.
Recourse: Al-Ghad.
