Hayy Jameel exhibition brings Red Sea histories to life

• ‘Red Wind, Coral Worlds' draws on art, archives and personal histories to examine shared cultural legacies

Nada Hameed

JEDDAH: Hayy Jameel is putting on “Red Wind, Coral Worlds,†an exhibition exploring the histories, cultures and ecological relationships that have connected communities across the Red Sea, East Africa and the Indian Ocean for centuries.

Curated by Huda Tayob and Miriam Hillawi Abraham, recipients of the Art Jameel Curatorial Open Call, the exhibition opened on May 20 and will continue until Oct. 26.

It brings together contemporary artworks, historical objects and archival materials to examine the Red Sea as a dynamic space of exchange rather than a geographical boundary.

 

 

Through themes of memory, belonging and movement, “Red Wind, Coral Worlds†traces the journeys of people, ideas and traditions shaped by trade, pilgrimage, migration and displacement. 

The exhibition highlights how these exchanges have left lasting cultural and social imprints on communities in the region.

Tayob, a South African architectural historian and theorist based at the Royal College of Art in London, focuses her research on migration, architecture and overlooked histories in Africa. 

 

 

She previously led the pan-African digital platform “Archive of Forgetfulness†and has contributed to a range of international research and exhibition projects exploring memory, migration and coastal histories.

Through “Red Wind, Coral Worlds,†the curators seek to position the Red Sea as a living archive of exchange, revealing how centuries-old connections continue to shape cultural and ecological realities in the region today.

Speaking to Arab News, Tayob said the project emerged from a desire to rethink conventional understandings of the Red Sea.

“Thinking about the Red Sea always makes us think about the various connections that people have to it,†Tayob said.

“Rather than thinking of it as a kind of limited or closed geographic region, which the sea is never, because water flows, it was really important to think about it as this place that people are constantly moving to and from and various histories of migration and movement.â€

She said the exhibition explores the Red Sea not only as a physical body of water but as part of a broader network of exchange shaped by centuries of travel and interaction.

Tayob noted that pilgrimage, trade and maritime movement have long connected communities in the region.

“Pilgrimage is such an important way that people connect to a place like Jeddah, especially historically, but also in the present,†she said. “Places like this and these port cities are really some of the earliest sites of global trade. Those are histories that remain relevant in the present and are very tangible in space, but are things that are often slightly below the surface.â€

The exhibition places particular emphasis on sensory experiences, encouraging visitors to engage with artworks beyond the visual.

“Although we think of, especially in a Western context, art as visual, outside of that there's this idea that to think about artwork is also to think about the sensory,†Tayob said. “It's what we hear through songs or poetry, and it's also what we smell.â€

Participating artists include Abeer Sultan, Ameena Aljerman Al-Ali, Basmah Felemban, Dima Srouji, Gouled Ahmed and Asmaa Jama, Hashim Nasr, Henok Melkamzer, Hoda Afshar, Hussein Shariffe, Joseph Kamaru, Madiha Sikander, Mustafa Saeed, Myriam Omar Awadi, Rund Alarabi, Sara Abdu, Sarah Al-Abdali and Shiraz Bayjoo.

Among the featured works is a large-scale piece by Saudi Yemeni artist Sara Abdu, created using henna, a material that appears throughout cultural traditions on both sides of the Red Sea.

Reflecting on her research visits to the Kingdom, Tayob also praised the growing Saudi art scene and the ways artists are pushing creative boundaries.

“Through the curatorial process and visiting Jeddah and visiting artist studios, it's been really incredible to see the way artists are working with materiality, with the sensory, with thinking through or excavating archives to think about the possibilities of creative practice,†she said. “They are really evocative and also doing something very different, pushing boundaries in many ways.â€

Drawing from family collections, community archives and personal histories, the featured works explore both intimate and collective narratives. 

Poetry, scent, ritual practices and coastal landscapes emerge as recurring threads, reflecting the enduring influence of cultural encounters across the Red Sea and beyond.

The exhibition also focuses on the environmental connections linking communities around the sea.

From coral reefs and mangrove forests shared by Jeddah and Sudan's historic port city of Suakin to broader ecological networks stretching across East Africa and the Indian Ocean, the project considers how natural systems have shaped human relationships and movement.

The exhibition stems from the Art Jameel Curatorial Open Call, which invited curators from around the world to develop proposals for Hayy Arts' first-floor gallery.

The initiative sought projects engaging with the Red Sea's interconnected histories, geographies, ecologies and the movement of people and ideas.