Presenting my latest triptych! This is acrylic on wood, titled 'Ya Rayah', inspired by my recent travels in Europe. I used no paintbrushes, only a pallet knife.
'Ya Rayah' (meaning 'you, the one leaving' in Arabic) was the soundtrack to my cycling, train-taking and ferrying this summer. This Algerian chaâbi song written and performed in 1973 by Dahmane El Harrachi is a ballad that sings of the traveler, the vagabond, the exiled, those longing to come back. For me, beyond the fact I listened to this tune on loop throughout the summer, it seemed a fitting title for a series of paintings which simultaneously speak of the joy of encounters, and the pain of separations.
Travelling this summer, I had incredible encounters but also wrestled with the emotions of letting go, of moving on from place to place and person to person. These paintings are simple and elemental, and depict two figures meeting, and separating. The grey figure carries streaks of copper which rubs off onto the white figure as it leaves after their embrace. Here I was trying to translate the way encounters change us, as we absorb elements of the people we meet, as they inspire us and impart with us wisdom, thoughts, dreams. Connecting with so many different individuals and hearing so many stories, I have come to appreciate the value and uniqueness of relations, of these human connections in our lives. Relationship and community are at the heart of who we are.
I painted these during quarantine when I arrived in the UK, tired and reflective, in awe of the encounters I have been blessed to have, and of the welcome my family gave me as I came home.
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