Almaha Jaralla’s solo exhibition is about recreating memories on canvas

A year ago, Emirati artist Almaha Jaralla stumbled upon a family album in her grandaunt Seham’s home in Abu Dhabi. Neatly labelled, the album’s pink toned images of Abu Dhabi clicked by Seham using her Fujifilm camera in the 1980s of beach picnics, desert drives and family portraits were a revelation to the young artist. The pictures unveiled insights into the social dynamics and topography of old Abu Dhabi, stirring in her a desire to capture these significant memories on canvas.

Almaha went on to establish a sense of connection to her past in a series of mixed media artworks, all of which are now on display at her solo exhibition titled ‘Seham’ at Tabari Artspace, DIFC, Dubai, till September 2023. ‘The albums showed me a world that was very different from what I had grown up in– from women’s clothing that was evolving to its current modest form to elements of a landscape that no longer exist. I am a nineties child and for me these pictures are a part of history, not only of my family but also of the [region],’ says Almaha, who holds a BFA in visual arts from Zayed University.

To give visitors a sense of an Emirati home of the eighties, the gallery has been converted into a living room from that era, complete with a majlis in pastel shades and a Victorian style floral wallpaper. While a table in the middle of the majlis displays a collection of the sepia-toned album pics, the walls are adorned with Almaha’s creations taking a leaf from her family’s archival pictures.

In her painting Old Corniche, she recreated a typical outdoor scene where Seham and her friends are enjoying an evening out with their kids at the Abu Dhabi Corniche. Yet another artwork– Al Shelaylah– captures a picnic with the family, complete with a Landcruiser parked somewhere in the middle of the desert with a couple huddled around it.

Some of the canvases are mounted with Mawaaz, a traditional men’s garment from Yemen as a tribute to Almaha’s Yemeni heritage as her ancestors migrated from the city of Aden to Abu Dhabi in the 70s.

‘When I was born, Abu Dhabi was already a bustling city. So, I missed witnessing its evolution and only heard stories and saw images about how a certain landmark was constructed. Several installations on the corniche, for instance, have, over the years [made way for new developments]. I could piece them together through these images and reconstruct them through my paintings,’ she explains.

Walking towards a muted mauve painting of the lone Al Maqta Bridge in Abu Dhabi, the artist talks about the significant space it holds in this art series. Built in 1968, the bridge connected Abu Dhabi Island to the mainland. Its construction was a landmark development in increasing transportation links to the Emirate.

While Almaha crosses the bridge every day, her first significant memory of it was when she was nine years old. ‘We used to live in an apartment in the Al Wahda area and were moving to the Abu Dhabi suburbs when we crossed the bridge for the first time and it was exciting to discover that I lived on an island and across it was a vast desert. While looking through the pictures in the albums, I could sense how this bridge would have helped generations before me move around the city.’

Through her work, the conceptual artist looks at how living environments can become personal portraits and seeks to understand individual identities and ancestral history. She reflects upon rapid social and physical transformations of life in the Gulf, through the experience of her own family members.

Much like Almaha, her father’s aunt Seham was fond of documenting her surroundings obsessively with her camera. Today the albums offer a glimpse of the dynamic developments in the region. They also helped the young artist understand her family’s influences and how they shaped her.

‘My [maternal] grandma Shadia, was a trailblazer who drove by herself across the Arabian Peninsula. My paternal grandma, Asia, got a scholarship and studied chemistry in Russia for nine years and worked in the petroleum industry,’ she tells.

Growing up Almaha recalls her grandmothers telling her to get married and settle down, but also to make sure to get a college education. ‘I was raised in a conservative family and always felt like a rebel. It was only when I discovered these albums and saw my grandmas in western outfits, studying abroad, so independent, that I understood, that I had in me, the bloodline of these progressive modern women.’

Since finding the photographs, Almaha has been pouring out her observations and emotions through brushstrokes in a visual story-telling format in her paintings. The figurative artworks do not have definite features, but fashion a sense of nostalgia and the dustiness of the desert through its colour schemes. The subject of her solo exhibition held last year in Abu Dhabi was her adventurous grandma Shadia, who drove from Aden to Abu Dhabi in the 1970s. ‘She is the craziest person I’ve ever met– draped in colourful shehlas, with red lipstick and her hair styled in bangs. A complete contrast to her is Seham, her sister-in-law. Quieter and mellow, the family matriarch, she is the one, who organizes family gatherings and brings us all together. Both these women have had a deep impact on me,’ reveals Almaha.

While Shadia lives in Aden today, Seham is based in Abu Dhabi. It was in the late 1960s that Seham’s family moved to Abu Dhabi from Yemen, in pursuit of a homeland that offered peace and stability.

‘I was all of nine and at first didn’t like being uprooted from my hometown,’ Seham recalls. ‘In Abu Dhabi there was only one school– Umm Ammar– where I studied till high school. Life was very simple back then. There were no roads, only sand everywhere.’

Married at 18, she had to discontinue her studies and move to Cairo, where her husband was studying medicine.

A few years later they came back to Abu Dhabi and as a young mom, she went back to the same school to finish her education. Later the family lived in Edinburg for a few years, where Seham enrolled for a course in business administration. ‘I was a bright student. But I did not pursue a career as my husband was very busy with his own work life and we decided that I would stay at home to be with the kids.’

Fond of photography and videography, the couple often chronicled their family outings with their cameras.

‘My husband taught me to click pictures, giving tips on camera angles and light filters. As he was the eldest in his family, our home was where the whole family met during holidays and at festivals.’

She recalls spending many evenings with her kids at the Corniche, at the Airport Garden, driving to farms in Dhaid, Sharjah and also to Salalah, Oman.

‘Those days families were closely bonded. We were also busy exploring the country. We would decide to meet at a petrol pump with our maps, find new spots for picnics and barbecues.

‘I was in charge of the food. Family favourites were sandwiches, boiled eggs and cold drinks in the ice box,’ she details.

Today the grandma has lived in Abu Dhabi for over 50 years and looks back at the rapid progress of the city with wonder. ‘Everything just jumped to the sky,’ she laughs reminiscing.

‘From no roads to multiple lanes, to skyscrapers and malls to a new education system and advanced health care sector, so much has changed.’

Being at the centre of Almaha’s art exhibition, came as a pleasant surprise to Seham. ‘We share a close bond, her parents are like my own children, I am happy to see her pursue what she likes, doing best.’

On her part Almaha shares that the albums and the subsequent exhibition, helped her to learn from her elders.

The pre-digital era, she feels, was one where community bonds were stronger and public spaces such as parks and beaches were perfect grounds for conversations and interactions.

‘Now we just meet in a cafe and get to know what our cousins are doing through their social media feeds,’ quips Almaha.

‘I feel you should spend time with elders of your family, listen to their stories, for you never know you might end up discovering more about yourself.’

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