2018
156 crushed, melted and recast soap bars, cast into a black soap plate, 124 x 240 x 4 cm.
156 varieties of soap available in the Mena region had their original shape, color, and odor altered through a process of crushing, melting, and casting. Each bar of soap served as an olfactory and shape object for interviews in which specific questions were asked. These related to synesthesia, olfactory and memory associations, etc. Each bar of soap was then transformed into a new object through the process of transformation. It can thus be read as a kind of visual and olfactory archive associated with the personal experience of cleaning, with hygiene and order, and with personal memories.
By changing the shape of the pieces and rearranging them, any relationship to the original bar of soap/smell is lost. The overall scent perceived by the viewer can no longer be differentiated. The process of this transformation and transmutation was chosen quite deliberately and refers to the character of memory work. In the attempt to recall something, the memory is already deformed, deformed, and transformed. The original set of data has been lost.
Maraya Art Foundation, UAE Unlimited March-August 2019, Collection HH Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Bin Khalifa Al Nayan
