The Corner, a Campbell Gray Living Amman art space, located in The Valley, Amman’s new downtown, is the exciting hub for established and up and coming artists.
To add to its quirky and unique collection of art pieces, The Corner is now showcasing as part of its art collection, a creation by Jordanian Chef Omar Sartawi, who presented another one of his innovations at the Amman Design Week that took place in October, an edible replica of an Ain Ghazal statue – a two-headed bust – using Jameed for his material.
The chef stated that he spent six months developing Jameed as a building material before unveiling the final work. Developing his own mixture, he used a mould to cast the piece and reproduce the statue’s facial features. Despite its stone-like texture and colour, the work is delicate and prone to cracking. As the fractures deepen, they reflect Sartawi’s ideas about the fragility of cultural heritage.
Named after the archaeological site in which they were found, the Ain Ghazal Statues comprise of 15 statues and 15 busts that date back to the Neolithic period, around 8000 BC. Made of lime plaster and reed, they were discovered in the 1980s and are considered one of the earliest representations of human form in such a scale. The original statue that Sartawi has recreated is currently on view at the Louvre Abu Dhabi.