Dwelling on the Past, 2021

Dwelling On The Past is a large scale public artwork, commissioned by Abu Dhabi Art, which reimagines the Bedouin Al-Sadu tent using black-and-white plastic, blending traditional weaving with modern petroleum-era materials. Inside, three embroidered dresses honour Bedouin women's roles as creators and leaders. This installation reclaims heritage, subverts material norms, and reflects shifting cultural identities through craft, memory, and symbolic spatial design.

It is an exploration on traditions of Al-Sadu weaving and re-contextualises narratives on the role of Arab women within a conceptual and contemporary art framework.

This installation presents a particular focus on women’s social role in the Arabian Middle East and challenges narratives, myths and stereotypes, not through external descriptions but through the voices of female weavers who wove about the society and community they lived in. 

Because the nomadic tribes of the Gulf area did not keep many written documents, the exploration of textiles becomes an important marker for historical, regional, material, gender and trans-cultural records, with the scribes being women of the tribes.

This allows for the re-evaluation of women’s status in the Arabian Peninsula and indicates that the women weavers used to play a central role in the tribe, and actively involved in the socio-political structure of their communities.