Diverse narratives from visual heritage... The Fatima Bint Faye' Museum: Murals, pottery, and textiles showcasing the aesthetics of Al-Qatt Al-Asiri art.
Ahwal Al-Ma'rifa – Special Report
Interest in Saudi Arabia in the art of Al-Qatt Al-Asiri has increased since it attained international recognition as a distinctive global art form, after being inscribed on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage List on December 9, 2017.
Against this backdrop, Saudi artist Fatimah bint Faye Al-Almai established a private museum dedicated to Al-Qatt Al-Asiri. The museum contains a collection of murals, paintings, clothing, decorative items, and everyday objects decorated with Qatt designs. It also includes pottery exhibits and innovative designs applied to utensils and textiles, as well as experiments with Qatt designs on stones and pieces of wood after identifying the natural colors derived from the region’s environment and the methods used to extract them.
The museum has thus become an authentic reflection of the extent to which Asiri women are connected to the arts, how these arts shaped their aesthetic sensibilities, and how closely those sensibilities are connected to the nature of their region.
The Museum’s Design
Fatimah’s Museum is located in the city of Abha, in the Rijal Alma Governorate, inside a stone building representing one of the architectural styles of the Asir region. It is surrounded by ornamental plants and trees. Inside, illustrated explanations about the heritage and arts of Asir are displayed.
The museum consists of three main sections. The first is dedicated to Al-Qatt art in the Rijal Alma area. The second focuses on Al-Qatt art in the Sarat region and the lands of Qahtan. The third is dedicated to traditional clothing, ornaments, and silver jewelry worn by women of the region.
The museum also serves simultaneously as a workshop and an exhibition space, with the aim of promoting Al-Qatt Al-Asiri and showcasing its aesthetics. Educational courses are held there for women to learn this beautiful art and heritage tradition.
In an interview about Al-Qatt Al-Asiri, Fatimah Al-Almai says that she had long been interested in and familiar with the work of Fatimah Abu Qahhas, regarded as one of the earliest and most famous Asiri women artists in the field of Al-Qatt. Al-Almai used to stay with her in order to learn from her.
Consequently, the first workshop in which she began practicing her art was Abu Qahhas’s home. Following the death of the renowned artist four years ago, Al-Almai felt that the time had come to establish her own workshop. She designed the project to provide sufficient space to receive trainees, including female artists and craftspeople wishing to master this distinctive traditional art of the region.
The garments displayed in the museum represent clothing traditionally worn by farming and herding communities, in addition to women's silver ornaments and jewelry.
The museum also contains a section dedicated to publications about the heritage of Asir.
It houses 400 works of art, in addition to old silverware, collected by the artist and her family over years of research, documentation, and journeys among villages, mountains, and old houses.
The exhibits vary from silver jewelry traditionally worn by women of the region on special occasions, to decorated pottery, wooden chairs locally known as “takhtat,” embroidered chests, and Qatt paintings.
The museum also contains a collection of traditional garments representing the various layers and styles of southern elegance. These include the Najrani thobe, distinguished by its Najrani character; the “Mayl,” embroidered in the colors of Jazan; as well as the “Mujayyib,” “Mujanab,” “Nat‘,” and “Mazar,” culminating in the “Bride’s Ensemble,” which symbolizes womanhood at the height of joy and celebration.
The Aesthetics of Al-Qatt Al-Asiri
This art, which is fundamentally a mural art form, is based on drawing primary straight lines horizontally and vertically. These intersect with secondary lines inside them at angles of 30, 45, or 60 degrees, creating geometric spaces of varying sizes but with a recurring rhythm.
While these lines are usually, or almost always, black, the spaces formed by their intersections are filled with different colors, predominantly red, blue, green, and sandy yellow.
In its final form, the design remains two-dimensional, consisting of length and width, without depth or a third dimension. In this respect, it has a clear affinity with the geometric ornamentation found in classical Islamic art.
Researchers of this art also believe that it was influenced by the traditional women's clothing of the region. The squares and intersections derive from the “quṭab” of textile embroidery, while the geometric form visible along the edges of embroidered lines, known as “abraj” or “towers,” also appears above many Qatt paintings.
This style of geometric line embroidery is Arab-Islamic in character.
The colors used in Al-Qatt are all vivid. Their visual strength derives primarily from their backgrounds, which are white lime-plastered walls, in addition to the small areas of white that appear between the designs.
It is highly likely that the inspiration for these vivid and lively colors comes from the vegetation of the Asir region, with its greenery, flowers, and the blue of the mountain sky.
Researchers and specialists in this multicolored and highly varied traditional art have identified approximately ten forms of ornamentation used in Al-Qatt. These include:
Al-Banah, a form symbolizing the female figure, usually placed at the top of the Qatt design, whether on the batrah or at the conclusion of a wall.
Al-Aryash, which takes the form of plants.
Al-Maharib, or mihrab-like forms.
Al-Rukun, which consists of triangular shapes.
Al-Balsanah, decorated with what is known as “al-naqt” or dots.
Al-Amshat, consisting of parallel lines extending upward and downward.
Al-Ta‘dhiq.
Al-Mathalith and Al-Makhamis, consisting of three or five parallel lines or threads.
Al-Kaff, or the palm/hand motif.
Al-Shabakah, or the network/grid pattern.
Given the great heritage significance of this art, artist Fatimah Faye collaborated with internationally renowned artist Ahmed Mater, Mr. Stephen, and Ms. Arwa Al-Nuaimi, under the sponsorship of Art Jameel, to create the Asiri Qatt mural “Our Mothers’ Houses.”
The mural decorated the lobby of the United Nations building in New York in 2015. Measuring 18 meters in length, it became the first Saudi and Asiri mural to be displayed at the international organization.
Her work also extended to Washington through the Misk Foundation. She participated in the Saudi Cultural Days in Algeria and in the World Tourism Marketing Conference in Dubai.
She also participated in the “Craft Bus” initiative with the Royal Institute of Traditional Arts, the “Qimam International Festival” with the Theater and Performing Arts Commission, and World Heritage Day events in cooperation with the Heritage Commission.
She has also participated in art exhibitions held at the King Fahd Cultural Center in Al-Muftaha and at the Abha Society for Culture and Arts.
In addition, she worked with the British Jabal Al-Turquoise Foundation on developing artistic projects aimed at preserving artistic heritage and presenting it in contemporary forms.
Perhaps the most significant achievement of Fatimah Al-Almai through her museum has been the development of the skills of 140 women who have visited the museum to train under her guidance since its opening several years ago.
They subsequently spread throughout the Asir region to practice this beautiful art and apply what they learned to the walls of homes across the region.
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