Syrian Artist Hamada Maddah Trains Young Palestinians to Sculpt What’s Inside

September 20, 2022

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Syrian Artist Hamada Maddah Trains Young Palestinians to Sculpt What’s Inside — A visitor takes pictures of sculptures in the "Revival" exhibition, at the Palestinian Art Court - Jerusalem (courtesy of the source).

Working and teaching in Palestine, the Syrian sculptor Hamada Maddah keeps busy with events, exhibitions and workshops like one he recently led in Jerusalem to teach young Palestinians to sculpt their memories, feelings and culture.

Maddah, who teaches sculpture at Birzeit University, expects to hold a solo exhibition combining sculpture and photography in Ramallah soon, following a group exhibition titled “Revival” he supervised in Jerusalem in August. Hosted by the Palestinian Art Court (Al Hoash), the exhibition showcased works by 15 young Palestinians who had just completed a three-month, introductory-level sculpture workshop that Maddah led at the art center.

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In an interview with Al-Fanar Media, Maddah said that he sees sculpture as more than an academic field preoccupied with artistic techniques, but rather as an emotional and expressive energy that can address all human beings, not just art scholars.

“This exhibition displayed various works that are linked to their creators. Some of them searched through their memories, recalling characters and people in the cracks of the clay. Others employed reality to document inspiring stories, to empty what’s inside in a unique artistic imprint.”
Hamada Maddah, describing the “Revival” exhibition

Born in the occupied Golan Heights, the Syrian artist graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts at Damascus University in 2006. Between studying art and teaching it at the university, Maddah has been keen, since 2012, to organize events to teach sculpture to various groups of learners and amateurs, regardless of age and educational backgrounds.

His educational approach links sculpture to Palestinian culture, as he believes that this art form was never far from Palestine’s history. “We have a very ancient culture and civilization with various forms of statues and sculptures,” he says.

A Form of Art Therapy

Maddah said that the participants in the “Revival” exhibition were young men and women of various academic and professional backgrounds, none of them over 20 years old.

“They attended the workshop to learn sculpture from scratch,” he said. “Art practice itself is a form of art therapy.”

That is especially true of working with clay, he said. “Clay forming, in and of itself, is a form of art therapy. Its psychological and emotional importance cannot be overlooked.”

The workshop’s participants had varying pressures, “but they were united by a desire to learn and develop their expression ability,” Maddah said.

Sarah Abu Eid, a law student, was one of those trainees. She told Al-Fanar Media that the workshop was her first art experience. “I liked the clay a lot. Besides its ability to discharge energy,” she said, “it is also a material that reminds us of our land, history and ancestors.”

Abu Eid said the workshop taught her more than sculpting and clay shaping techniques; she also learned how to appreciate free expression more.

A collective group of participants in the exhibition “Revival”

“This is what art allows us to do, in addition to giving us the ability to communicate with our memories,” she said. “In this exhibition, I sculpted the face of my grandmother’s grandfather after an old photo of him. This experience was one of my most rewarding moments.”

The experience was satisfying not only for Abu Eid. Her grandmother visited the exhibition and was very happy to see her grandfather’s sculpted face. “At that moment, I felt an old connection with my grandparents through art,” said Abu Eid.

Stages of Sculpture Training

During the workshop, the participants progressed through several stages, starting with theoretical lessons to get to know the nature of clay, the historical development of human knowledge of the material, pottery manufacture and daily uses, and the evolution of the use of pottery and sculpture throughout history.

The practical aspect included sculpting techniques, identifying the details of the human face and sculpting them accurately. The trainees also studied methods of carving masks, and ways of expressing animals between reality and imagination, as well as free expression and abstract sculpture.

They also learned how to make sculptural reliefs of Palestine’s most famous plants, such as sage, mint, and olives.

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“This is what art allows us to do, in addition to giving us the ability to communicate with our memories. In this exhibition, I sculpted the face of my grandmother’s grandfather after an old photo of him. This experience was one of my most rewarding moments.”
Sarah Abu Eid, a law student who participated in the workshop and exhibition

“This exhibition has a special character,” Maddah said. “It displayed various works that are linked to their creators. Some of them searched through their memories, recalling characters and people in the cracks of the clay. Others employed reality to document inspiring stories, to empty what’s inside in a unique artistic imprint. Some of them produced a painting that seeks nothing but to plant some beauty in the midst of this turmoil.”

Each participant displayed more than five works. Some were sculptures of prominent Arab and Palestinian cultural figures, such as the late Egyptian poet Amal Dunqul (1940-1983) and the contemporary Palestinian artist Sliman Mansour, who is well-known for emblematic paintings like his “Camel of Hardships”.

The young artists used materials from the local Palestinian environment to produce various types of sculpture, including pottery and works of clay on wood. The exhibition’s collection of sculpted faces included one of the late Palestinian singer Rim Banna (1966-2018).

The Expressive Power of Art

On the exhibitions’ output, Maddah said: “While the sculptors are first-level trainees, their sculptures’ features are clear. It is not expected, at this stage, to be very precise, as sculpture, besides being a technique, is a medium for expressing our thoughts, feelings and culture.”

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Some of Maddah’s past training events have been intense personal experiences, such as the workshops and courses he has led to teach sculpture to children and to blind people.

“Those experiences taught me, along with the participants, that each person is able to create art in their own individual way,” he said. “I personally benefited greatly from those workshops. The relationship between art and the blind should not be limited to the visual dimension only. It is an expressive energy, as sculpture takes care of human beings’ inner feelings.”