Daughter of the desert

Author Monica Mergiu Published by MArt & Royal Printed in Munich Germany.

“ one is not born a woman, but becomes one”

Simone de Bouvoir

Shadia Alem is not only a contemporary artist. She is a timeless artist. And woman. Saudi woman.

She has neither age nor direction. She is simply the daughter of the desert, an emancipated, but very religious daughter and her art seems to come like a djin from the sand dunes to talk to us through miraculous colors about the mountains from Taif, the minarets from Mecca or the humble pilgrims sunken in prayer.

Shadia Alem is a soul from the soul of the Saudi desert. Shadia, sister of the writer Raja Alem contemplates by her phantasmagorical, supersized and overwhelming works everything that is mightier in these Saudi realms more or less accessible to foreigners. Maybe here lies the origin of the praises received by the artist in Europe, especially in Paris.

Beyond the exotic nature of the art created by Shadia Alem, there is a depth of the senses and religious perception of this young and modern woman.

It is enough to see the series Supreme Ka'ba of God and we immediately understand the devotion and gratitude of having been born in Mecca.

Minarets become the center of all hopes and the place in which all sounds, voices, colors meet in a unique spiritual universe.

The materials and colors, a mixture with which Shadia Alem works juggles seem to be depicted from the ancestral stories of the and Bedouins with genies and enchanted people

This is precisely the strong artistic point of the artist. Mysticism in modern form, the revival and reinterpretation of old stories of the bedouins with oases and tents in a creative language perfectly mastered by Shadia Alem as a mysterious prolongation of the books written formm written by her sister Raja.

Maybe we, the Europeans need these images, deeds of a subtle, but mighty creator, exotic, seeming to talk in a language from other times.

Maybe this is how we can discover a common artistic language or maybe we shall simply build a multicultural communication bridge. We discovered Shadia Alem with huge joy. She has a kind of artistic expression that can be hermetic. It is not necessary accessible to all visitors of art galleries. But in the aluminum used by the artist in her works of art there is a lot of warmth and a lot of aesthetic sense..

Shadia Alem masters the ancient language of the djins in her deep black eyes of an artist of the desert is hidden a legendary world - a world in which Bedouins are building the most modern works of architecture and among the wandering sand dunes are daily born hotels of an exorbitant, fabulous luxury for all believers on their road to Mecca. The sounds of the mountains from Taif and the humid, tenebrous and bright colours of the rare rains in the Saudi desert like the bells of the Parisian cathedral Notre Dame and all these are part of the everyday life of the artist Shadia Alem.

Precisely this amalgam makes her so interesting and so unusual in the international artistic space.

Shadia sent me a letter about her artworks concepts. I have to confess that due to her, Mecca doesn't seem to me nowadays such a remote or inaccessible place anymore. This is a great gift and benefit offered from the art created by Shadia Alem and generously given to us all. THANK YOU SHADIA

Women and Art