Rouh

Humans can transit an unseen, invisible life to their spaces, possessions and objects. It’s only through time we realise how these surroundings can be part of our lives; they refer to us or even can be us. These objects can form a sort of a character that resembles its owner. This intimacy remains even after the human depart this life, their belongings will always be identified by their names, souls and stories. This invisible attachment dragged the artist attention into how to represent this unseen life visually, by making the invisible visible.

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The subject “the Thobe” - and its accessories - is part of the male identity in the region for decades, this piece has always a strong presence in many of his life events. It witnessed a personal, intimate moments and stories. By that, he allows a continuous synchronisation stream of pulses, breaths and most of all, a life to this piece. The reason that made the artist wants to emphasis the idea of characterising the Thobe, trying to trace this hidden life within the layers of its texture, threads and stitches. All these elements can form metaphoric cells of these living objects and can be magnified in depth to reach what is seems to be a human cell that stored memories with its every detail.

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Four items been chosen to be represented in this project, as they form a complete cycle of the male costume. Each comes from a different period of time with four different intimate stories, Thobe, Bisht, Shomagh and Oqal. In order to portray it realistically, the artist has chosen a medium that she never experienced before to implement the concept, which was the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). A type of electron microscope that produces images from a 2mm x 2mm sample by scanning it with a focused beam of electron. The SEM can magnify the objects up to 300,000 times, reaching a level that can’t be seen with the naked eye.