Interview with artist Almaha Jarallah conducted at the artist studio on 09.11.2023 by Prof. Katarzyna (Kasia) Dzikowska

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Kasia Dzikowska

Please introduce yourself. 

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Almaha Jarallah

Hello. My name is Almaha Jaralla, an artist based in Abu Dhabi. I graduated from Zayed University in 2020 with a Bachelor in Fine Arts.

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K.D.

Could you tell us about the artistic training that you have?

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Almaha Jarallah

I like to call myself a “Bait15 baby”. I had the best mentors from there, to be honest. Afra AlDahri was also my professor at uni. She taught me how to paint. I was also Hashem Lamki’s studio assistant when I was at Bait15. I was spending most of my time there. The environment of seeing multiple artists and learning about them and meeting them personally as a student helped me a lot. Seeing artists growing in front of me and becoming full time creators also inspired me, showed me it's a possible dream, right? Seeing it in front of my own eyes made me understand how important an art community is, what it can do and what it can accomplish.

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K.D.

How long you have been in the creative community?

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Almaha Jarallah

I started at college. I had so many ideas when I graduated from high school. I went to an engineering college and wanted to be an engineer. Then, from the first semester, I was like, ‘Well, I don't know what I'm doing here’. I went to the art school. I remember profesor Naz Shahrokh asked me, why are you here? This was the first class, the art foundation course. And I told her, I have so many things to talk about.

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K.D.

When you changed your degree, did you already know that you wanted to be an artist?

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Almaha Jarallah

Yes. Yes. Somehow. And I'm glad I trusted my instinct, and I followed it.

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K.D.

How have you developed your art career so far?

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Almaha Jarallah

I remember in college I had a focus on pride and identity. I was hanging my face everywhere in college; I felt that I should be proud of your face. I was thinking that if I'm proud of my face and showing it everywhere in college, other girls are going to be also proud of their faces and their identity. From there it morphed into taking photos and painting houses. Somehow I started treating houses like portraits. If I take a photo of a house, I can see a lot of characteristics of the family living in. I was treating the houses as portraits and it started from there. And now I go to different areas to document these houses and compare areas to each other. A lot of people think I just go to old areas, but I'm very interested in the present and the future. I compare new to old houses just to see the evolution of how much our culture and families are changing, right? You can see that through houses and what inhabitants care about in their shelter and it’s design. The elements they chose in their houses. This tells us a lot about how our families are changing.

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K.D.

What has been the most significant impact on your career?

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Almaha Jarallah

I did a show in 2023 at New York University Abu Dhabi, at its project space. You apply there and they give you a space and you produce an exhibition. I think it started there. Everything changed after this show. I never had a solo show and I felt like I'm ready to do it. I took my chances and created this whole thing about my family story. It sounds crazy because I wanted to talk about the Gulf modern history through my archives, using the archives that I have. And I did the show. And since then, I'm getting a lot of opportunities.

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K.D.

Describe your creative process.

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Almaha Jarallah

I will have an idea in my head and I keep asking why, why, why, why, why? I put the ‘whys’ down and try to research it in depth and understand it. And meet people and go outside. Most of my work comes from experiencing things, leaving the house and going around the people. It helps me understand the topic more than just researching it. I force myself to go out of my comfort zone, I would call it. And it's really easy here in the UAE, because we have so many different communities to experience, to get stuck in their circle or a comfort zone. And every time you leave, it is like a culture shock. I wanted to be comfortable jumping from a zone to another zone. In that process, because I'm an outsider, I see things from a different perspective and I can observe them and write them down. These situations bring me a lot of ideas and make me see stuff that maybe other people don't see. From there, I will research, I will get archives, I will try to go in depth and understand the history behind it. It's very research based, I would say. Afterwards, I will start the painting part. I do a lot of color studies, this is very important for me. The desert color studies especially, as we live in an desert island or the surrounding areas. We live in a place that is very warm, and the deserty, dusty location that has a specific color.

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K.D.

How about your mediums and techniques?

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Almaha Jarallah

I use a lot of textiles, photography and paint. I usually use photography when I want to document houses. If I have an attachment to the place, I want to comment on it, I will start painting the location. Painting is my commentary. It can be emotion or frustration, it can be happiness, it can be a memory.  I do create a lot of installations, small ones. I like to curate my shows in a way that creates a welcoming environment, where people can sit and experience the actual thing that I went through. For example, when I went to Al Ruwais and I went inside houses there, I wanted the audience to also enter those houses with me. When I was exploring Abu Dhabi of the eighties, I brought the majlis and I wanted people to sit and feel like they're inside of it.

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K.D.

What influenced your style?

Almaha Jarallah

At the beginning of my practice, when I was in college, I researched a lot of Middle Eastern contemporary artists, especially women, because I relate to their work a lot. I am influenced by people who come from similar backgrounds and I can relate to their work. I also force myself to walk in the street to get inspired.

 

K.D.

What motivates you to create?

 

Almaha Jarallah

Most of my work is about the environment around me and the people around me too. I think everything I make may be important at some point for the next generation when it comes to documenting spaces. And feelings too, it’s also important. Art is a very new idea or concept here in the UAE. At some point these artworks going to be significant for the next generation. That's why I want to create something that can be useful and authentic. When it comes to documenting family dynamics and what people are interested in, I wonder about what people would care about in a couple of years. It sounds really weird to people that I take pictures of casual houses, but I know at some point we will appreciate that. That's what keeps me up. Also, the importance of arts here. I think it's key to find a middle space where we can attract people and make them more interested in arts. I come from a family where members are engineers, they work in petroleum.  I'm pretty sure most families here are like that, either petroleum or engineering in general. It's a big thing here. The culture side, we need to grow it more. We need to give it some love.

 

K.D.

How would you summarize your role as an artist?

 

Almaha Jarallah

I will take a concept, I will take an idea, a habit, a phenomenon that people are doing around me and put it on a pedestal. That's my role, my job as an artist to take a topic and highlight it. It's like writing a research, but a visual research and force people to look at it and give it at least a moment. For example, we leave our houses and start driving. Our eyes can't focus on our surroundings. We usually just focus on the street and that's what matters. And we skip a lot of things on a daily basis. My job is to make you stop for a minute and focus and see what's going on around you. I want people to learn how to enjoy the simplicity of life. When you sit alone without phones or anything distracting you look at what is in front of you. And hopefuly my work will teach you to appreciate the teeny tiny details in your life.

 

K.D.

Is that what you feel when you create?

 

Almaha Jarallah

Absolutely. Absolutely.

 

K.D.

It's a form of meditation or connection.

 

Almaha Jarallah

I never thought about it as meditation, but it does help. The fast-paced life that we live, gives us short attention span. To the point, if you're cut off from everything, you can go crazy. But we possess unlimited entertainment in our brains, if we know how to unlock that area.

 

K.D.

Which part of the UAE are you from and how does that affect your work?

 

Almaha Jarallah

I'm from Abu Dhabi, all of my family is from Abu Dhabi. I grew up in downtown Abu Dhabi, in the city. I always consider myself as a city girl. Later on, we moved to the suburbs, to Al Shamkha. This was my first time seeing desert, feeling sand and playing outside.

 

I talked about this in my show, ‘Seham’. I talked about Jisser Mukhtar. It was built in 1963 for trucks to be able to enter the island Abu Dhabi island and build the city. I used to cross Jisser Mukhtar when I was young to come to the suburbs, that is how I learned that I lived in an island because I saw that we were crossing the water, and I also start seeing the desert. Back then it was an actual desert, it was a long trip to the desert.

 

It's part of my life because my eyes are so used to these colors. When I see colorful scenes, especially when I travel, it's too saturated for me. It does hurt my eyes. I'm so used to the muted tones. I love it. I learned to appreciate it. It's very visible to me. It's all around me. You can see it in my studio.

 

That's my personal relationship with the desert. Growing up, I would hear, a lot of my friends go into Barr (the desert) and they would camp in the desert. I didn't because I'm my family is more of the city people. We don't have the concept of going to the Barr and all of that. I had to force myself and learn about it. And it's very interesting. And I'm looking at it from a from a different perspective.

 

K.D.

Do you feel connected to the desert?

 

Almaha Jarallah

Absolutely. I live in one.

 

K.D.

It's almost everyday occurrence, right?

 

Almaha Jarallah

It's so much part of me to the point that I don't notice it. I have a funny story. On my first day at Zayed University, they gave us a tour and said, ‘If you want to see a beautiful view, you go to the third floor of the library’. I was so excited and so surprised. What view was they talking about? I was pretty sure there is nothing around this campus. Then I went to the third floor and I saw this endless desert and I was like, ‘Where's the view?’ Because when you live in in the desert, you don't see it anymore.

 

K.D.

How much does connection to the desert affect the feeling of being an Emirati?

 

Almaha Jarallah

Interesting. It's a tricky question. I don't like it.

 

K.D.

Why you don’t like the question?

 

Almaha Jarallah

Because we have a lot of ideas about coastal people, Bedouin people, we have city people and we have mountain people. Growing up, hearing all of my friends going camping and doing that kind of things, I felt like I have to prove myself hard. Like ‘ooh I'm an Emirati too, I understand our culture too’. And I remember pushing my mom, telling her I want to try camping. And she didn't know what to do. So she took us on safari for foreigners. And that was the only Barr I learned as a child, the fake safari for tourists.

 

K.D.

As a child, you didn't go to the desert?

 

Almaha Jarallah

No, no.

 

K.D.

You've mentioned that there was something there that you wanted to prove. Where does that feeling of need to have a connection to the desert come from?

 

Almaha Jarallah

Coming from the city, the idea of going to the desert was just wild. I think a lot of people find something in the desert, find calmness in being away from the city, being away from the crowd. Usually, they learn that from their family. My family didn't have that. My family are city people, they don't understand the desert.

 

Because I grew up my whole life in the UAE, seeing all of this happening around me and hearing experiences and stories about the desert, I wanted badly to connect to it. When we moved from the city, we were so happy as kids, meeting other kids and playing in the sand together, eating sand, making things out of it. We used to play only with sand and it was a lot of fun. We had toys but preferred the sand. And the first thing I did when I moved out of the city and there was this huge, endless sand, was to dig the deepest hole and try to find dinosaurs. My mom would get so angry if I played with water outside because it gets muddy and all of that. And I loved to do it when she was not around.

 

K.D.

You would make mud pools?

 

Almaha Jarallah

Yes. yes, yes, it was a lot of fun. I feel bad because now, I see kids and they don't go outside at all. They are missing a lot of fun.

 

K.D.

You had very strong memories from childhood. What is the difference between the experience of the desert as a child and experience as an adult?

 

Almaha Jarallah

I hear a lot of Emirati people talking about how they love traveling, and the first thing I ask them is ‘Why do you love traveling?’ What comes to their mind is, I want to see greenery, right? I want to see trees, I want to see landscapes. And nature. You ask foreigners that question, they want to see the desert.

 

I always wanted to see the desert from an outsider's perspective, to appreciate it, to understand why would someone travel to see it. A lot of people don't put in that effort because as I said, it's all around you, you don't see it. These days, everytime I drive a long distance, having nothing in front of me except the sand, I just keep telling myself that not everyone can experience a view like that. A lot of people would kill for this empty veiw, you know?

 

It is a difficult concept. Also these days, the government is creating a lot of festivities based on the love of the desert. The new generation has access to organized trips and festivals connected to the desert. Because of that, they understand the phenomenon being connected to the desert. I love to join and experience it. Now it's easier to go in and experience that I think.

 

K.D.

What does the desert mean to you?

 

Almaha Jarallah

It's my environment, it’s what I'm surrounded by, it’s where I'm comfortable and used to the space. It's very interesting. Even eating. One time I was eating rice in the Barr and it was the best meal I ever had, Kabsa. Everyone was asking me, why, what are you doing? Apparently I was eating Kabsa with sand and I thought it was so delicious. I wanted to know why did I find it delicious? Our sand has a lot of salt in it, which is a bit like spices. Did I find it delicious because there is something in my DNA, that craved it? I don't know still. But it's very interesting.

 

My relationship with the desert is strong, every part of me relates to it at this point. I don't know why. A lot of people hate it when things are dusty, they are bothered by it. For me, I don't notice these things. I love walking without shoes, barefoot in the sand. I feel I'm connected, I'm grounded. I love the smell of it. I am  also connected to the sea. That’s because I grew up on the island of Abu Dhabi. When I travel, I don't have a sea next to me. I miss the smell of the salt in the air. I didn’t know it was there until I started traveling. Abroad the air smelles weird, it needs salt.

 

I am very connected to my homeland, to Abu Dhabi, and I don't want to ever leave this space. It's very calm. When I want a change, I go to Dubai, to Ras Al Khaimah, to Fujairah. I change the mood and have fun. But in the end, I run back and come here because very quiet. Gives me peace.

 

K.D.

Does the desert play a role in your artistic practice, in your art?

 

Almaha Jarallah

Absolutely. Especially when it comes to studying the colors. Color studies of the city. Abu Dhabi city is very dusty and muted, and I love spending time just mixing these colors. When I created the ‘Seham’ show, I saw archival pictures of my family in Abu Dhabi. Because of the Fuji camera that was used, the photos were very red-ish, like there was filter on them. But even through that red filter, you can see the places are dusty and sandy and it gave me a new opportunity to study those colors.

 

K.D.

The colors of the natural environment end up influencing your work.

 

Almaha Jarallah

Yes, it's very subtle. You often don't see the desert, but you can see the sky, which is dusty, and very muted, hazy. The white is not actually white. The green is not actually green. My colors are very specific to the location.

 

K.D.

How much do you identify with the desert and what does it mean to you?

 

Almaha Jarallah

I always say like I'm a desert girl. I feel like I'm allowed to say that I understand it, but I don't know how to answer this question.

 

K.D.

You see yourself as a desert girl. So then that means that it's quite a big part of the identity. And also, you've mentioned you would never, ever want to live anywhere else.

 

Almaha Jarallah

Yes. Even if I had to live somewhere else, I would choose a similar environment because I'm used to it. I identify with the desert to the point that I don't notice it anymore. It's just part of my life and part that I can't even imagine not being around me. I traveled and I saw different landscapes. For example, I went to China, and I saw these beautiful landscapes with mountains and green trees. It bothered me that I coudn't see the horizon. For example, I can see the foreground of small things, but there is a huge mountain that blocking the space. And there are trees also blocking the distance. Those are just small things that you don't appreciate it until you think about it.

 

K.D.

The desert is such a core part of your existence that you don't notice it, but you feel it when you are missing it.

 

Almaha Jarallah

Yes, it’s like leaving the comfort zone.

 

K.D.

Do you think that the desert is treated as a symbol?

 

Almaha Jarallah

Of course. If you look at the landscape of the UAE, you will see that the UAE is surrounded by the Alhajar (rock) Mountains, from the Oman side. Where the mountains end, the desert starts which is the UAE landscape. That's our land. That's the majority landscape that we have. That's most of the country. Absolutely, the desert is a symbol. I'm thinking about other symbols like the Al Maha deer, a desert deer. I'm thinking about the falcons. I'm thinking about the palm trees and the camels. These all come from our desert environment.

 

K.D.

What do you think about those symbols?

 

Almaha Jarallah

I think they should go way deeper. We hear about the past from stories. Maybe these symbols were fully true at some point. For my generation, we think of the desert in a different way, that's what I can speak about. When I think about the desert, I think about cars. I think about caravans. And I'm thinking about how we're going to get electricity during the trip. I also think about all the nice resorts that we can go to. We still have a strong connection to the desert, but we're trying to make it accessible for this generation, for people my age so they can enjoy it still.

 

When I tell people I live in the desert, especially when I travel, they have the idea that I have a tent and I'm cut off from everything. And that I just have sheep around and this is how I live. No, we have actual streets. We have a radar here, too. We have Baqala’s shops, we have a small mall. We do have resources, it’s a whole residential area, but the desert is around us.

 

I moved to Al Shamkha in 2006 and there were a lot of camel farms. It was a very remote area, with no street system. A lot of people had their camels here around. When people started moving to the houses here, they moved all the camels away. But I remember walking in the street, in the car and seeing camels walking around us. These days I would never see camels here. Now I am walking and I see cool bikes and trucks selling nice coffee. It's huge difference.

 

K.D.

Does the desert has an impact on creative people in the UAE?

 

Almaha Jarallah

Yes even if they don't think so. It's forced into their work because it's always around them. I'm talking about the UAE. Even if creatives try to run away from it, it's going to be there. They may don't realize it, but it's always there in terms of colors, textures, smells and even 3D shapes. Everything we think about as creative people, comes from somewhere. Of course it's influenced by the environment. The desert is going to come out and in visual form. It is the environment we grew up, it's going to be there because it was always around us.

 

K.D.

Do you think that desert has personality?

 

Almaha Jarallah

Yes, I do. It can be very scary and it can be very free at the same time. When you wake up in the morning, if you are camping and you can see beautiful, purply sunrise. The desert is so open, you feel free. You feel like, you have air around you that came from an open landscape. And at night it's so dark you feel claustrophobic. It can be both at the same time. It's very moody. It can be very pretty and very scary at the same time. At the desert you hear beautiful stories and really scary stories at the same time. So it's very changable.

 

K.D.

Is the desert still authentic?

 

Almaha Jarallah

You can easily think about it in the cliche way. When I go to the desert and see the dunes, the beautiful dunes, it is so beautiful. But if I take a picture of it and put it on Instagram, it is so cliche you take away from the feeling. Desert can be super cliche and it can be super authentic.

 

If instead of taking a picture of the dunes, take a picture o the car you come came or the caravan. The way you got electricity. The water tank that we carry around. That's super authentic. We put so much work into going camping and being comfortable in the desert because we had the option to stay at home. But we decided to be out in the desert.

 

We brought everything and prepared. And, that's authentic, that that's how much we love the desert. The desert is authentic. It's is part of a lot of people's life.