There are stories held in stone. Others linger in ash or tremble in the curve of a vessel shaped by hand. Ancestral Futures gathers these stories not as memories we archive but as memories we embody. Etched in glass, formed in clay, or shaped in metal, these are not static artefacts. They are living objects, breathing with the narratives of our past and present, and that remember us as we remember them.

Each work in this exhibition holds a trace. Not the kind kept behind museum glass, but the kind that breathes; warm, responsive, intimate. They speak through their materials: stretched, glass-like skin, metal shaped into woven patterns of prayer, and clay that cracks like old earth. Some carry rituals, and others sketch possible futures. But all bring ancestry forward into spaces we haven’t yet seen. The audience’s presence is not passive here; it is what brings the story to life. Your gaze, your memory, and your imagination are the vital elements that these objects need to fully come alive.

Where sand, stone, metal, and glass become storytellers

Material Memory is where this dialogue begins. In this cluster, materials speak for themselves. Kawther Al Saffar’s poured metals hold the heat of ancient methods. Sara Aahli’s glass vessels glow with breath and bone. Talin Hazbar’s sculptures make time tangible, stone shaped by wind and water, memory and stillness, each surface holding the patience of slow change and the intimacy of touch. Areen Hassan’s handwoven carpets are maps of every thread. Layth Mahdi’s resin form blurs the line between human touch and machine gesture. Maktoum Al Maktoum’s camel bone relic turns intention into frame and memory into form. These works remind us that memory is not just stored; it is actively shaping these objects and, by extension, our understanding of them.

Objects become vessels of belief, care, and continuity

In Ritual & Resonance, we encounter design as a form of devotion. Abdulla Buhijji’s scented blocks distill herbal memory into sculptural medicine. Wafa Al Falahi’s vessels twist like language passed through generations. Sultan bin Fahad reimagines household objects as sacred thresholds, where silk, tin, and phrases carry layered histories. Nuhayr Zein’s Al Mandoos revives the spirit of inheritance through plant-based tactility and carved oak. These works are rituals in motion, gestures of care, scent, repetition, and return.

Design as adaptation: scalable, modular, in motion

In Nomadic Adaptation explores how design moves with us. Omar Al Gurg’s modular furniture promotes a sense of playful belonging. Pots & Pines stack recycled joy into garden totems. Neda Salmanpour translates palm geometry into sculptural repetition. Tamara Barrage’s forms are familiar and strange creatures that pulse with tactile curiosity. These works shift and reassemble, honouring motion without losing meaning. They are rooted but not fixed. Flexible, but never empty. They remind us that to adapt is not to forget but to continue.

Together, these pieces sketch a map where the past is not behind us but beside us. Ancestral Futures does not seek to preserve tradition as it was but to invite it into motion. These are not remains. They are beginnings. Carried in the hand, passed through breath, told again and again. The future they imagine is not linear. It is a spiral. A memory made new. A future shaped by devotion.

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©FATMA AL MAHMOUD
FRIDAY GALLERY