Zhat El Himma (2006)

Simone Fattal

Clay
80 x 151 x 59.5 cm

Sharjah Art Foundation Collection

Artist and publisher Simone Fattal is inspired by the spirituality, history and mythology that encompasses the countries of Northern Africa, West Asia and the Caucasus. Her lyrical compositions encompass paintings, collages and sculptures produced from clay, bronze, stone and terracotta. Clay ‘talks a lot’, Fattal notes, it is almost flippant: ‘it’s a strong thing, it doesn’t let you do whatever you want.’ Such are also the demands of historical telling: an elasticity and endurance that must be reckoned with and shaped. Two sculptures from 2006, Zhat El Himma and Abdel Wahab were fired in the same kiln. Both are inspired by the traces of the same epic story or novel, Sira, which exists primarily as an oral history.