Sixteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

For centuries, the pre-eminent craft of Bedouin women has been the ancient practice of weaving, dyeing and constructing tents, dividers and fabrics derived from, and necessary for, a nomadic desert life. The various processes of weaving these ‘beit-al-shar’a’, or ‘houses of hair’, derived from camels or goats is known as al-Sadu. These al-Sadu textiles provide the spatial fabric in which Bedouin society takes place: women design and weave the shakak which determines a tent’s size and the ru’aq which separates the women’s section. Motifs and patterns create links with the past: the fabric acts as a memorial recording the natural environment. Weaving offers a way of thinking about borders as connections, since the division between the tent and the desert, internal and external is always fluid. My current research focuses on how contemporary artistic practice in Saudi Arabia empowers women who have been at the forefront of a flowering in art from the Middle East, and how this relates to their major role in traditional nomadic cultural life. Al-Sadu weavers faced disempowerment not long ago as their spatial practices were threatened by machine production and urbanization, but a new wave of contemporary artists has recognized the value of the unique perspective provided by this un-traditional art history which provides the focus of my research. I am particularly engaged by the vibrant interactions between this ‘craft’ and radical contemporary Saudi art, which is becoming of major aesthetic and commercial interest everywhere.

Presenters

Khulod Albugami
Assistant Professor of Art in Sculpture , Visual Arts Department, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia