Tree of Guardians

My constant questioning of the state of disappearance led me to its counterbalance—the necessary act of preservation. In my previous works I have explored the issues of the preservation of a woman’s name [Esmi], incursions and limitations on the autonomy she traditionally enjoyed [Suspended Together], and the juxtaposition of her conventional representation in Arab society and the reality of her current professional identity and personal potential [I Am].

But even as the exercise of active remembrance and documentation extends vertically through time, the preservation of identity also extends horizontally beyond the individual woman to include the wider society that she calls her own. In periods of social and economic change, men often had to adapt to the shifting mores of the dominant system in order to earn a living and advance within the society. Thus it was women—mothers, grandmothers, aunts and older sisters—who became both the repositories and the transmitters of traditional culture, ethics and ideals, often in an oral fashion. Nursery rhymes, poems, stories, riddles, parables, fables—these became the information packets through which traditional identities, attitudes and values were actively transmitted to subsequent generations, with women acting as their guardians, preservers, and transmitters.

Finally, while the installation must of necessity be located in a particular place, the work is also designed to be the physical epicenter of a ripple effect of remembrance, discussion and reflection. Here the visitor to the installation becomes an active part of the display as he or she begins to reflect on his or her own family history, considers the contributions of the women who made up previous generations of the local society, and explores their stories and influences. As a result, the intellectual and emotional impact of the installation spreads as visitors move away; engage others in conversations about the past, present and future; and thus create a ripple effect of active preservation—a further safeguard against the irretrievable loss that comes with forgetfulness and ignorance.

 

Therefore, this sculptural installation is at one and the same time a marker of the individual women that are named on the leaves and captured in the oral histories, and a celebration of the many generations of unnamed women who served as the protectors and messengers of authenticity. It is a work that also transcends time, drawing from the past, celebrating a current generation of women, and projecting their cultural identities far into the future. And its impact extends beyond its physical location, as the installation initiates both active preservation and exploratory conversations about the role of women as the primary guardians and guarantors of authenticity and values against the ravages of time and forgetfulness.

In 2021 Manal was invited to participate in The Ad-Diriyah Biennale of Contemporary Art. It was the first biennale of art in Saudi Arabia. In that opportunity, Manal presented again Tree of Guardians but she decided to show for the first time all the drawings of the participants in order to make their participation even more visible.At the same time, she added a microphone with the question “Tell me a story about your mother” inviting the audience to whisper to the walls of the artwork their personal stories and including a new layer of participation. This microphone was open the entire time while the Biennale was receiving visitors, and it generated a huge archive of thousands of oral stories of the visitors. The archive was so huge that it was almost unapproachable.

 

Every summer, Manal runs themed internships for Art Students in her studio, the 2022 internship was about Archive and the students received many talks by experts regarding this subject and they worked on tasks related to the different archives of her studio. Loulwah Kutbi was one of the Saudi interns that summer and her main task was listening to the archive of Oral Histories recorded in the Biennale. This is the reflection she has written as a result. The audios can currently be heard in the exhibition "Manal AlDowayan: Participatory acts" at Misk Art Institute until June 15.

 

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