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CONFERENCE OF BIRDS
by Zaina El Said and Mohammad Awwad
9 February to 7 March 2019
Zaina El Said and Mohammad Awwad jointly exhibit at Jacaranda Images, inspired by teachings of enlightened sages on the meaning of life.
The Persian poem ‘The Conference of Birds’ by the 12th century poet and Sufi thinker Farid Ud-Din Attar is the title of this exhibition and one of the inspirations for the works within it. The journey and the meaning of life have perplexed civilizations forever. Writers, religions, individuals have attempted to find an answer, with a handful of people understanding the question sufficiently to reach beyond it. Some call these the ‘Enlightened’ – Rumi, Hallaj, Rabia Al Adawia to name a few. Their exploration and teaching of the ‘truth’ recognises an energy and consciousness from within and that reaches beyond the limits of a two dimensional perception of life.
It is in consequence of the writings left by these sages that the idea of this exhibition came together. Using symbols and visual metaphors the works by Al Said and Awwad explore some of the journey led by the Hoopoe bird in the poem lending a painterly insight to these astounding yet timeless writings and teachings.
Zaina El Said
Zaina was born and raised in Jordan, and completed her higher education from the UK in business administration. Amid travels and missions between Russia and Europe, it wasn’t until year 2010 that Zaina settled back in Amman and took up arts as her career path. Being brought up in a family of artists it seemed destined she would eventually follow the household footprints.
Zaina’s collage art focuses on assembling many worlds into one, usually led by a protagonist; she focuses on mixing world cultures, architecture, motifs, archaeology, arts and nature into a single portrait to convey that human innovation complements one another in a harmony with nature. Her works can be described as symmetrical, colourful and full of patterns.
Mohammad Awwad
Mohammad Awwad is an artist & graphic designer located in Amman, Jordan, and a graduate of the Academy of Arts (Egypt), who finds inspiration in random motives, personal interests, colours, textures and his daily life, gathering and using anything from magazine collages to site seeing tickets. His artwork shows vintage, surreal style with playful colors contrasting over layers of textures, and he mixes elements of the various cultures that he is been exposed to.
His continuous pursuit of new experiences, mediums and ideas makes his work authentic and diverse.
