Prologue Every life begins in a cradle, shifting between wakefulness and sleep, and perhaps within unseen thresholds in between. Cities are no different; they sleep and awaken, grow and age, vanish or renew themselves from nothing. Here, on this land, it is popularity believed that the mother of humankind, Eve, once lay at rest, and from that stillness emerged life; a cradle for a past suspended between myth and history.

Jeddah, the cradle of myths, resting place of Eve, and mistress of ancient ports overlooking waters that carry both poverty and abundance, the near and the distant.

A mirror to the world, and a refuge for every passing soul within its alleys and rawasheen. The threshold of every pilgrim, and an entrance into a fortress of stories and secrets. Jaddah—the grandmother of all—where bodies are not buried to perish, but to Everlast across time.

Exhibition Statement

In her third solo exhibition in Jeddah, Sara Alabdali turns toward the city’s layered past, seeking to understand the shifting boundary between myth and history. Building on earlier explorations of material and intangible heritage as vessels of cultural memory, the artist here moves toward a more distilled approach—one that reimagines myth in abstract form while examining its relationship to the structure of Jeddah, particularly its feminine dimension.

The works evoke fragments of a tangible heritage now fading, while posing an open question: does what disappears return, like the phoenix rising from ash, or does it drift into the realm of myth, reshaped over time into something imagined?

Through this inquiry, the exhibition considers myth not as a fixed narrative of the past, but as a living structure, one that continues to transform across time, existence, and place.

Materials & Collaborations

The works range from gouache and charcoal paintings to hand-printing techniques, alongside textile-based pieces that explore the vitality of material and its role within both public and private spaces.

This is reflected in two key collaborations. The first, with Tabaa, a label under Sara Alabdali Studio, appears in the work Grantors of Permission, where flowing silk threads are used to depict two women from the Hijaz within a composition inspired by the roshan (mashrabiya) unit.

The second collaboration, coordinated by Dr. Saif Al-Rashidi,a historian specializing in preserving Islamic arts and crafts through the craft of the khayamiya tentmaking particularity. The collaboration brings together four artisans from Cairo specializing in the traditional craft of khayamiya—one of the oldest textile arts in Egypt and the Islamic world, still practiced today in Khayamiya Street near Bab Zuweila.

Through these works, Alabdali extends her exploration of myth by linking the feminine dimension to the nature of textile itself, and to the idea of temporary structures—unfolding a visual and conceptual journey through time, memory, and place. About Sarah Al Abdali Sarah Al Abdali is an artist and researcher based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Working primarily through painting, her practice explores identity and material culture, with a particular focus on overlooked historical narratives related to women, architecture, and social structures. She has advised leading cultural institutions, including the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities and Turquoise Mountain Trust. In 2023, she made her curatorial debut with The Growing Vines of Sodom at Hafez Gallery and was appointed assistant curator for the second Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah. In 2025, she published her first novel, Departure in the Depths of Madinah, extending her practice into the literary realm.

Al Abdali first gained international recognition with her pioneering graffiti work in 2012, marking the beginning of a multidisciplinary trajectory. In 2023, she founded Tabaa’, a studio brand that collaborates with designers and cultural entities to recontextualize art within contemporary material culture. Her work has been exhibited at the British Museum in London and featured in major international exhibitions, including the Islamic Arts Biennale (2023), the Cairo Biennale (2019), Art Paris (2018), and the Sharjah Islamic Arts Festival (2017), among others.

“The Legends of Motherland approaches myth as something neither distant nor fixed, but continuously shaped through memory, material, and place,” says Al Abdali. “Jeddah emerges as both subject and witness, where narratives are not only preserved, but perpetually reconfigured.”