ARTIST NOTE

Liberated Jarrah (2024) is composed by combining five traditional Palestinian pottery, the Qedra Type’s Jarrah, with the non-linear medium of sound. These pottery were used as tools for Palestinian women to draw and store water in the Jordan Valley, and were themselves an important medium connecting the everyday lives of Palestinians to nature and the land. However, after being looted for a long time and displayed like spoils in colonial exhibitions, the pottery loses its original narrative. The objective of the Liberated Jarrah is to dismantle the pottery as tangible artifacts, reconstruct the narratives and deliver them to the audience in new ways. 

The shape of the pottery was thoroughly reproduced through collaboration with the Palestine Exploration Funds’ archaeologists and potters based on the study of Palestinian pottery during the Ottoman Empire. Using traditional TerraCotta soil, the pottery was created with traditional Palestinian techniques, and baked in a kiln without glazing. The sound installed with the pottery combined the sound of drawing water from the Jordan River, the sound of water, and the sound of Palestinian children playing in the river as archive materials and displayed with pottery. Beyond the physical form of the pottery, the Liberated Jarrah focused on recreating the narrative contained in it as a living space where audiences can imagine. Through this imagination, the narrative of the pottery was freed from a disconnected space and experienced as a living narrative. 

This Project was exhibited at the London Design Festival.