1001 Arabian nights
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research
Nada Sami
The three girls of baghdad
"kan ya makan fi salef el3ahd we elzaman..." these were the famouse arabic words that started off any of the 1001 tales. they translate to: "in the past of past there existed a place in a time amongst time,in the reign of reigns". These stories enchanted me and many others, as children and adults. that is why i decided my favourite tale from this collection: the three girls of baghdad. this story has everything that the arabian nights is about. from princess's to khaliphas, from beggers to riches and from jinn to erotic love scenes and betrayal. the story is deep and intricate, i had to read it over and over again untill i finally graspped the meaning of the tale and understood the charecters.
i finally decided on charecters tht i wanted to illustrate. i felt that 2d illutration or animation would not truely enchant and depict the charecters accurately. so i started reseaching other methods,3d methods. film,fashion, and finally dolls.
i found that art dolls would be perfect for this project i did emense amounts of research on the arabian nights stories and their manifestations.
i discovered that there were only a handful of doll adaptations of the arabian nights and they were all of the same charecters. like jasmine , aladin, and sherazade.i also noticed that even the dolls which were made to depict the famouse charecters, were sometimes inaccurate.
inaccurate in terms of clothing and research with head dre''ss's and jewlery and such. this led me to do even further research into the way arabian nighs has been illustrated in the middle east and the west.
my depiction of the female jinn in the "three ladies of baghdad" tale.
the caligraphy
translates to 1001 nights.
Some of the best sources
So for my western adaptation research i bought the follwing book:"Arabian Nights Illustrated: Art of Dulac, Folkard, Parrish and Others "
it is a great source for anyone who is interested in arabian nights. on the opposite page i have some examples of the illustrations in the book. these artists are very thorough and are renowned worlwide. hier work is thoroughly researched to the last minute detail. i studied this text alogside variouse books on cloth doll making , and ofcourse the arabian nights film adaptaitons and even disney's aladin! on the next page i have some examples of different works from the arabian nights illustrated book and of some barbie dolls,from the arabian nights serioes as well as some variouse art dolls that i have found online.
from the book i bought of arabian nights illustration follow link to purchase
from the 1001 nights journal blog
art doll by beck hallaway
check out the site its great!
for my middle eastern research i went to egypt, there i looked at variouse publications about the arabian nights in arabic. i also read multiple versins of the same story in arabic and english. i read the series of arabian nights stories which were split up into installments. i have put a picture of them here, i also went to many hstoric sites of old cairo.
here i took many pictures of amazing and beautifull buildings and examples of islamic art, these were all built roughly at the same time as the arabian nights stories were supposedly copiled and written.
i also looked in the american univerity of cairo's picture library, at pictures and drawings of clothing in that era which were sketched from life models so i know they are accurate.
on the next page i have added some examples of these publications and of my own pictures from cairo!
enjoy!
1956 movie with shaday and fareed shawky
My main inspiration came from a one of my idols. sherihan. an egyptian entertainer.
i used to watch sherihand dance and sing on Tv everyday for hours on end. she was enchanting,breathtaking. I rember wanting to be just like her has a child.
when i was about 4, till i was about 11, i used to watch a mini series sherihand had recorded to be aired during ramadan. that show was "fawazeer alf layla we layla" or the stories of 1001 nights. this series was on every day of ramadan for two years,every day or two there would be a rhyme to solve, in the form of a song. the series was a musical collection of some of the stories of the arabian noghts. one of them, which was the main framework for the series, was the three girls of baghdad!
i did not realize this till after i had already picked the story as my project. i was so happy to make this discovery, even though sherihan's version is a very PG version, it is still rich.
the fawazeer are amazing, the costumes and the sets are so true to the arabian nights, i feel that is one of the funnest depictions of the tale,on the right i have put in a link to the you tube videos and some pictures from the show.
each episode started with an animated version of sherazade and shahrayar then sherihan plays the charecters in the stories, the main three charecters, the three girls.
fawazeer 1001 nights egyptian show
sherihan playing the part of the princess telling the story within the story
the ending is like the begining, it is animated and ends with sherazade hearing the sound of the cock and yawining
sherihan singing the intro
a very famouse egyptian actress playsthe coniving step mother of the three girls,reema
my decisions
so i decided to add an element of sherihan in my project. that is why my final piece is accompanied by an audio recording of the 1st episode, to add a storytelling effect. I hope it works.
i made my dolls out of love and a real interest in the arabian nights tales, it is a subject that is very close to home and i feel that it is a multi cultural ,multifaceted piece of work . i made my dolls the way i percieved the charesters and how i imagined them to look,bearing in mind the historical aspects. such as clothing and the background.
for the background i went with 2 colours rather than detailing it in my usual bright style. this was in order to maintain the vibrancy of the dolls. the backgrounds were screen printed over and over again, untill i finally got the right mix of colours. the actual design was based on my primary research from egypt.
i shall be adding some pictures of the final piece this week, as soon as i have set everything up.
stay tuned
here are some of my sketches and screen prints that i have done for the project.
