Libyan artist Nour Sami Jaouda has been selected by the Diriyah Biennale Foundation to participate in the World Forum for Islamic Arts 2025 in Jeddah. This participation is a significant addition to the young artist’s career, as she will exhibit her distinctive works at this global event held from January 24th to May 25th.
Who is Nour Jaouda?
Jaouda was born in Cairo in 1997 and resides and works between Cairo and London. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from the Ruskin School of Art at the University of Oxford (2018), and a Master’s degree in Painting from the Royal College of Art in London (2021).
Jaouda is characterized by her passion for making hand-dyed textiles and discovering the unexpected aesthetics of organic dyes. In her work, she relies on collecting natural dyes and fabrics and recycles her textiles and fibrous compositions in a special artistic way.
Her work revolves around diverse themes such as self-retrieval and reconstruction, the fluidity of identity, the confusion arising from decay and reconstruction, the fragility of belonging, and renewal.
Nour Jaouda has participated in numerous exhibitions inside and outside Britain, where she held her first exhibition in 2017 in Oxford. She also exhibited her work at the Montpellier Contemporary Art Center (2014), and the 60th International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale (2024), which confirms her distinguished artistic presence on the international scene.
Jaouda Describes Her Work: “Before the Last Sky”
Jaouda described her work, “Before the Last Sky,” as “evoking the greatness of God and the state of human submission and surrender, which represents the essence of Islam.” She points out that the word “Islam,” means submission and obedience, in one of its most prominent meanings, which is the purpose achieved through Muslims performing prayer throughout the day and night.
The artwork, directed towards Mecca, addresses the postures of prayer through three wrapped textiles representing bowing, prostration, and sitting. Jaouda explains that these three textiles refer to the effect of portable prayer rugs in transforming an ordinary spot of earth into a sacred space, becoming a bridge between the material and spiritual worlds.
In addition to these textiles, suspended metal gates are extended towards the sky, inspired by the designs of the decorations that adorn the walls of mosques, about the delicate boundaries that connect the earth to heaven. Jaouda adds that the work embodies the state of submission and surrender using simple materials on a grand scale.
The Libyan artist draws attention to the fragile nature of hand-dyed textiles and their random spaces and lines, which invite contemplation on human weakness, imperfection, and mortality. These textiles provide an opportunity for introspection, focusing on the prayer rug as a revered place, and on prayer times as revered times.
Jaouda concludes her remarks about her work by saying: “Being a portable space placed between the earth and the worshipper, the prayer rug adds a spiritual dimension limited in its time, but eternal in its meaning.”
British Critic: Nour Jaouda’s Works Explore Identity and Belonging.
British critic Jessica praised the works of the Libyan artist, emphasizing that her artwork is the result of her being influenced by and influencing the places she passed through in her life and the places she lives in as if she is in constant, unstable motion She adds that her works represent an attempt to explore distances and geography, to understand absence and presence temporally, and to reassemble the disjointed and rebuild it.”
The British critic believes that Jaouda’s experience of repeated attempts at rooting adds dimensions, concepts, and a strong feeling to her works, whether through re-establishing her identity or the opposite. She points out that we notice in her textiles “a state of fluidity in identity and a continuous state of reaching the intended.”
Commentary by the painting studio
The Libyan painting studio commented on Jessica’s opinions, noting that the works of artist Nour Jaouda seek to explore the issue of inherent identity. She deals with the identity of place and time, and the impact of memories and society on the individual.
Jaouda was born in London, where she studied art and was influenced by its rich cultural atmosphere. She moved between London and Cairo, which affected her artistic vision and added another element to her identity.
Despite the influence of these factors, Jaouda remains proud of her affiliation with the Jaouda Libyan family and seeks to preserve this legacy in her works.
This diversity of influences is considered part of Jaouda’s artistic journey, where she seeks to understand the complex issue of identity, especially for individuals who live the experience of immigration, whether it is intellectual or physical.
