Aala al bahr, at the beach, 2023

Aala al bahr, at the beach, 2023

The exhibition also includes a textile installation, from Al Solh’s ongoing series of tent works, that are based on her collection of stories by and about women. The tents, a nod to the canopies powerful (male) rulers used to sit under, are assembled to create a secluded refuge, and all have names of the hours of the day or night embroidered at the top in Arabic calligraphy, alluding to the passing time. In this most recent version, the artist installs a beach parasol in the gallery space, with two beach chairs and a video work that exposes surreal situations, resulting from the harsh economic crisis that Lebanon is going through: snippets of people counting enormous amounts of devaluated Lebanese pounds alternate with views of the sea that is suffering from the consequential environmental crisis.