Al Ula collection by Shadia Alem - limited edition

Concept

Al-Ula served as the crossroads of the Incense Road, the Silk Road, and the al-Hajj Road.

When I visited Al-Ula recently, I heard the spirits of this place whispering to me. I followed their instructions and came across miniatures depicting these three important factors in Mecca and Al-Ula, inspiring me to bring the past back to life by merging it with the present.

I took out parts of the miniatures and added them to some of the photos I had taken of Al-Ula and Mecca, travelling back and forth between the two cities with them.

I imagined that these figures reappear in these places, or that their memory still resonates, a déjà vu to overcome boundaries, to say that we are not separated from our past or future, not from the forms of art over time: civilization, creation expands, there is no past, no present, no future, imaginary or real, there is a unity, a oneness, there is a state of one journey in forms and in time, human time, the time of creativity.

My smile of miniatures is my response to the whispers I have heard from the playful spirits of these places.

Technique
Collage photographs & miniatures from British Museum
© Shadia Alem - all rights reserved - reproduction prohibited.