‘Passage’ – ممر and ‘Strata’ – طبقات are two large scale site-specific artworks commissioned by the Jordan Tourism Board for the Jordan Pavilion at the World Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan. Designed by architects Shifa Zghoul and Ahmad Jubran, the theme for the pavilion is ‘Weaving Possibilities’ and highlights Jordan’s craft heritage and historic place as a cross road and passage for many past civilizations.
‘Passage’ and ‘Strata’ share the main hall inside the pavilion with a mud wall by Japanese mud artist Naoki Kusumi and a sound installation by Jordanian artist and architect Ammar Khammash. Kusumi’s wall is inspired by the natural colors of the Jordan desert and was created using sand from Wadi Rum. ‘Passage’ and ‘Strata’ continue the wave patterns in Kusumi’s wall to create a visual dialogue and continuation. ‘Strata’ is positioned above Khammash’s sound installation to become the woven projection screen for digital projections created by the sound installation, symbolizing the merging of ancient craft and new technology.
‘Passage’ – ممر is a large-scale felted mural made of wool fibers burned and felted onto a woven Bedouin tent fabric. It is an homage to the iconic Bedouin tent with its dark color and light horizontal stripes, a visual symbol of our heritage and Arabian desert landscape for millennia. ‘Passage’ is titled after Jordan’s long history as a literal passage for many ancient civilizations, all of which have left marks on Jordanian soil and on its people, its cultural and artistic heritage. ‘Passage’ dresses the outside wall of the ’Theater of Civilizations’ – a round projection theater inside the pavilion. It creates a visual continuity of waves with a mud wall by Japanese mud artist Naoki Kusumi, and my piece ‘Strata’, leading visitors from the ‘past’ to the ‘future’ – from origins deeply connected to earth and nature to the digital screens and present-day Jordan projected inside the theater.
The sheep’s wool is felted to create a texture and appearance of horizontal stripes using the natural colors of the sheep’s wool, as well as the decomposition and charring of the burned wool, creating a gradient from dark to light and back to dark.
‘Strata’ – طبقات is a site-specific weaving installation which represents the layers of the earth, synonymous with the layers of human civilizations which have inhabited Jordan. Weaving is a universal ancient craft which was uniquely shaped by each civilization that practiced it. It represents the coming together of numerous elements to create a much stronger cohesive collective where each layer depends structurally on the layers before it. It was woven on site inside the pavilion, onto a rope system to create a textile ‘projection wall’ for digital projections interacting with a sound installation by Jordanian architect and artist Ammarr Khammash. It speaks visually to Kusumi’s mud and to ‘Passage’, mimicking their horizontal lines and earthen colors.
