Lawrie Shabibi is pleased to present Poetry in Stone, the first solo exhibition in the UAE for renowned Jordanian sculptor Mona Saudi.
Mona Saudi’s sculptural practice stretches over five decades, creating forms full of vitality, beauty and a clear sense of equilibrium. Mona Saudi is a sculptor who lives and breathes her Middle Eastern heritage. One of the very few Arab women artists to pursue sculpture, her achievements and unique style place her as an important figure in the history of modern Arab art. She has lived through times of great political turmoil – including a civil war in Lebanon - and yet her artworks feel timeless and serene.
Featured in this exhibition are seven sculptures from the period 2003 - 2012, showing the breadth and range of Mona Saudi’s vision. To Saudi, born in Amman, Jordan, a long-time resident of Lebanon, studying in Paris, with a mother from Syria and her father’s family originally from the Hejaz, the world has no borders. Her choice of material expresses this notion. She revels in using different kinds of stone from the Middle East: black diorite from Syria, alabaster from Yemen and from her native Jordan pink limestone from Irbid and the distinctive, signature green stone, Jordanian marble, Italian and South American marble, Lebanese yellow stone, Iranian travertine and African granite.
Another important element of Saudi’s artwork is her love of poetry, typified by a series of seven silkscreen prints of drawings made between 1976 and 1980 inspired by the writings of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, Saudi's friend from the early 1970s until his death in 2008. Phrases from Earth Poem, Hymn for the Green, Her Image and Suicide of the Lover, become part of the composition of her drawings. Also inspired by Adonis’s poem, the Petra Tablet, Mona Saudi created twelve drawings in silkscreen prints in 1996 that glorify the Nabatean city carved in stone. Saudi’s drawings are inspired by poetry and relate clearly to the sculptural forms she creates, with their strong graphic line and totemic imagery.
Media Contact
For more information, images or media enquiries contact Nadine Fattouh
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