Cocoon, 2009

acrylic, pigment powder and spray, ink and pastel on paper

Bdour and Qdour I, 2020

pigment gouache, pastel, acrylic, pencil, ink and charcoal on paper (hot pressed smooth/fine even wash with shellac)

Anatomy I, 2012

acrylic, gouache and pastel on paper

Reclining I, 2018

gouache, pencil, ink and pastel on paper

Ein al-Joz Bride, 2016

pastel and pencil on paper

Breaking Waves, 2018

gouache, ink and pastel on paper

Transformations: horse among wells (aka after Eugene D’s Ovide), 2020

pigment, pastel and acrylic on paper

The Dig, 2015

acrylic, pastel, chalk and gouache on paper

Waterfall I, 2015

mixed charcoal on paper

Waterfall III, 2015

pastel, charcoal and gouache on paper

Eyes wide open, 2018

ink stamps on archival print

Messenger Bird I, 2020

ink on paper

Messenger Bird II, 2020

ink on paper

Lion Boy, 2015

gouache, pastel and pencil on paper

A matter of taste, 2015

gouache on glossy paper

Bdour and Qdour III, 2020

aquarelle pencil and acrylic on paper

Messenger Bird III, 2020

copy pencil on paper

Messenger Bird IV, 2020

copy pencil on paper

Wolf, 2020

ink on paper

The upper spring and the lower spring, 2020

pastel and pencil on paper

Reclining II, 2018

gouache, pencil, ink and pastel on paper

Her contour (hand and eyes), 2018

ink and gouache on paper

Things that make you laugh and cry at the same time, 2018

silver gel ink on found paper

Courtesy the artist

Presentation at the 23rd Biennale of Sydney was made possible with generous support from Canada Council for the Art

I demand for us to revisit the landscape. I demand for folktales to be told again, or for the return of our oral history… that means the togetherness, the gathering, the community. 

This ongoing series of mixed-media drawings and paintings, started in 2009, are central to Jumana Emil Abboud’s ongoing research into Palestinian folklore, the ritual of storytelling and their connection to land and particularly to water. Growing up in the Galilee, Abboud’s family spent more than a decade in Canada, and since returning to her homeland has travelled extensively, working with local communities in search of water sites and the stories they contain – stolen, hidden and lost over time.  

 For hundreds if not thousands of years, women and children collected water from natural sources across the Palestinian countryside including springs, waterfalls, wells and rivers to provide for their villages. It was here in these informal gatherings that stories were ‘written’ in the oral tradition and passed on between generations. The tales invoked the magical and powerful spirits that inhabited or haunted each water site – teaching the community (often through inciting a healthy sense of fear) to value, respect and share the precious resource and not to abuse it through overuse, greed or contamination. The lessons of these folktales continue to be of significance to contemporary times.   

 Many stories held encoded messages from women to other women, cultural rules around gender roles, and resonate with folk narratives from other cultures around the world – of tortured children, evil stepmothers, poisoned wells and shapeshifting beings. Abboud’s whimsical and melancholic work is populated by a cast of these creatures including wolves, birds, lions and gazelles; as well as mostly lone female figures. Speaking about Cocoon, one of the first in the series, Abboud says: 

For me, she doesn’t represent a specific story but rather the beingness of living in a hidden world or in the dark. And that could be translated into going against the stream of what your culture or society wishes for you; or having a secret and not being able to talk to anyone about it; or being haunted, being possessed by the demons of your own mind and not knowing how to face them… Not knowing if you are the one that possesses the space or if the space and everything that it entails possesses you.  

All quotes from a Zoom conversation with the author, 7 February 2022 

Presentation at the 23rd Biennale of Sydney was made possible with generous support from Canada Council for the Arts 

Listen to the artist tell the folktale A brother, a gazelle and moving the mountain to let the sun shine through.

Click here to view the transcription

Documentation of landscapes and water sites from the artist’s research around Banias at the foot of Mount Herman, north of the Golan Heights, and the Palestinian cities of Birzeit, Deir Dibwan, Ein Qiniya and Nablus in the West Bank.