Reinventing the abaya with unexpected materials like oud.
At its core, the series challenges the traditional notion of a woman’s place, suggesting that the real danger lies not in stepping beyond the confines of the home, but in how society shapes women’s agency. Through this lens, The Oud Abaya navigates themes of resilience, transformation, and the evolving nature of identity in the Gulf region.
Reimagining identity, transformation, and tradition through art, fabric, and the elements.
Welcome to The Oud Abaya, a digital museum that transforms the abaya and thobe into powerful vessels of memory and exploration. Inspired by a vivid dream of an abaya adorned with oud wood chips and consumed by flames, this project reinterprets these iconic garments as canvases for storytelling, examining the tension between destruction and renewal, tradition and innovation.
Fire, Water, and Fabric: Symbols of Grief
The interplay between fire, water, and fabric forms the foundation of this work:
Fire symbolizes dissociation, defence and greif, reflecting physiological and emotional experiences tied to PMDD and menopause.
Water serves as a cooling counterpoint, offering balance and relief, embodying cycles of restoration.
Fabric, as a second skin, becomes a medium for exploring vulnerability, strength, and identity, bridging personal and collective narratives.
Central to the series is oud, a fragrant wood formed under stress. Its overpowering scent symbolizes resilience and hardship, encapsulating the tension between beauty and the struggles that create it.
Each garment in the series is a living form, designed with deliberate intent, leaving either the front or back plain, creating a window for breath. These empty sides reflect the need to:
Respect the Body: Allow space for the feeling of needing to escape one’s body during moments of physiological intensity.
Facilitate Balance: Create freedom for interaction between the body, the elements, and the surrounding space.
Honor Openness: Symbolize the release of tension, offering a reprieve from internal and external constraints.
This thoughtful design transforms the garments into living forms, shifting them from static symbols to dynamic vessels of experience and transformation.
The Abaya and Thobe as Vessels of Memory
The abaya takes center stage in this exploration of identity—a garment worn by women across the Gulf region, reimagined as an active participant in an evolving narrative. Its male counterpart, the thobe - a symbol of masculinity and cultural identity, is seamlessly integrated, with a physical part of the thobe merged into the abaya. This fusion sparks a dialogue that transcends gendered boundaries, inviting a humanistic reflection on the shared experiences of humanity beyond gender.
At the heart of the project is reverse storytelling, moving from affirmation to absence, life to loss. This structure mirrors the artist’s journey of confronting cultural expectations, transforming each garment into a vessel for examining personal and collective memory.
The Oud Abaya continues to evolve, expanding its engagement with heritage and modernity. Future installations will deepen these themes through:
Multimedia Experiences: Incorporating film, live performance, and interactive media to create immersive narratives.
Dialogue Between Garments: Bringing the abayas into direct conversation with each other and the audience, reinterpreting their symbolic significance.
Archival Exploration: Developing a digital archive of abayas, connecting historical research with contemporary reinterpretations.
Collaborations with NGOs: Partnering with organizations to raise awareness of the series’ themes through community-driven projects, bridging art with advocacy and fostering a deeper connection to its narrative.
An Invitation to Reflect
Through its ongoing journey, The Oud Abaya engages with the intricate legacy of the abaya and thobe. By presenting diverse perspectives, the work invites audiences to reflect on and reexamine the complex experiences and identities of the Gulf region. It creates a space where tradition and innovation converge, offering a living archive of resilience, transformation, and cultural memory.
Step into this evolving dialogue. Your journey begins here.