The vast area of desert on the Arabian peninsula, tellingly known as the Empty Quarter, has been crossed by the nomadic Bedouin for centuries. The immense landscape contains mysteries we can barely comprehend. It was here that Thesinger completed the epic treks that provided the material for his classic work Arabian Sands. He was seeking the last wilderness in a sanitised modern world, and came to this area of the Middle East to find it.
But others were here long before him, in addition to the aforementioned Bedouin. What’s more they had left a legacy through their art but, as with most petroglyphs, no accompanying explanation as these works were created thousands of years before the development of written language. I was browsing Emmnauel Anati’s back catalogue of books on rock art when I first saw the image. It was so viscerally and directly arresting that I immediately knew that I would have to use it for a design.
But others were here long before him, in addition to the aforementioned Bedouin. What’s more they had left a legacy through their art but, as with most petroglyphs, no accompanying explanation as these works were created thousands of years before the development of written language. I was browsing Emmnauel Anati’s back catalogue of books on rock art when I first saw the image. It was so viscerally and directly arresting that I immediately knew that I would have to use it for a design.
It is bafflingly enigmatic. The Goddess figure raises her arms in a gesture of, well, what? Supplication, or celebration, we will probably never know. Either way the gesture feels defiantly dramatic and commanding. The wild, matted , dreadlocked hair, perhaps with ornaments, provides further atavistic symbolism. It brings to mind other graven images on rock by the San portraying the shamanic dance of figures with arms outstretched behind them. An ecstatic raver from prehistory.
On closer examination, one hand has the conventional five digits, but the other only four. The strangely withered arms which appear almost skeletal with the skin hanging from them, with nobbly protuberances at intervals. Certain physical characteristics are strangely distorted, most obviously with the elongated waist and tiny head. There is a vague sense of menace and a feeling of awe.
Nomadic peoples may leave little trace, and their footprints are swept away in the shifting landscape of the desert. Their art on the rocks is all that could remain as a permanent memorial.
On closer examination, one hand has the conventional five digits, but the other only four. The strangely withered arms which appear almost skeletal with the skin hanging from them, with nobbly protuberances at intervals. Certain physical characteristics are strangely distorted, most obviously with the elongated waist and tiny head. There is a vague sense of menace and a feeling of awe.
Nomadic peoples may leave little trace, and their footprints are swept away in the shifting landscape of the desert. Their art on the rocks is all that could remain as a permanent memorial.
