Designed by Layan Attari, Curated by Lucas Morin, Commissioned by Jameel Arts Centre
Page Images:Ismail Noor, Seeing Things
Product images: Kathleen Hoare
Product Description: 75 Pages, Soft Cover, Colour Illustrations
Dimensions: 18.5 x 16 x 2.5 cm
ISBN: 8186509948978
Publisher: Nahla Tabbaa 2022, U.A.E
Description
Bringing together the artist’s visual and culinary practices, this almanac-like publication designed in collaboration with Layan Attari features recipes and colour swatches derived from ingredients dried on the roof of Jameel Arts Centre and Tabbaa’s study of the sunrise and sunset. Tabbaa uses recipe-writing as a means to draw up analogies and metaphors. Nonhuman beings are personified, given a wide range of feelings and put through evocative processes echoing emotional states, such as uprooting. Her recipes are both instructional and poignant: they evoke a culture of sharing and display a complex knowledge of the materials at hand.
About the Artist
Nahla Tabbaa was commissioned by Jameel Arts Centre to produce a site-specific intervention at Jaddaf Waterfront Sculpture Park. Shamsa is a series of time-based interventions that look at the passage of time through the impact of the sun. Tabbaa’s commission has resulted in a limited-edition artist’s book in collaboration with graphic designer Layan Attari, as well as a selection of flavoured salts, pigments, and oil infusions. Bringing together the artist’s visual arts and culinary practices, this publication features many recipes derived from ingredients dried on the roof of Jameel Arts Center. Tabbaa uses recipe writing as a way to draw up analogies and metaphors. Non-human elements are personified, given a wide range of feelings, and put
through evocative processes echoing emotional states such as uprooting or drying. Her recipes are instructional and emotional: they bring about a sense of sharing and imply a complex knowledge of the materials at hand. Nahla Tabbaa will be in conversation with curator Lucas Morin about her process of developing Shamsa. She will then invite audiences to sample the project’s outcomes: salts, chocolates, compound butter, and more.