Objects of Imagination: Contemporary Arab Ceramics

As an initiative by the Kinda Foundation for Contemporary Arab Art, Objects of Imagination is a unique collaboration of nearly forty artists from across the Arab World, in which both traditional and innovative techniques were used to create a body of ceramic artworks. Over the course of nine months, the Kinda Foundation invited a group of Arab artists to a dedicated ceramic workshop in Amman, Jordan, supervised by Delair Saad Shaker and Waleed R. Qaisi. The artists each created four artworks in a variety of techniques, often pushing their practice beyond traditional painting. Using the same base of a large earthenware plate, 52 cm in diameter, the techniques range from drawing with oxides and painting with underglaze to carving, relief and sculpture. Each plate was glazed and fired at a temperature of 1020°C. Throughout the project, the creative process was fully documented for the Kinda Foundation archive. Although originally conceived as a revival of functional Arab ceramic tradition, the results of this experiment are startlingly diverse, despite many of the artists¿ lack of experience in making ceramics. Without practical restrictions, the creative freedom that they enjoyed was further enhanced by the collective experience, which clearly demonstrates the impressive scope of unlimited artistic imagination in these works.