Rand Abdul Jabbar, 'Untitled (Frame), from the series Tracing Origins', 2022, Variation 4, Tracings of ceramic object on embossing foil, 42 x 29 x 1 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Lawrie Shabibi.
Rand Abdul Jabbar is featured in Like Gold/പൊന്നു പോലെ, a collateral exhibition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, presented by Rizq Art Initiative and curated by Murtaza Vali. The exhibition explores gold as both myth and material, tracing the flows of wealth, trade, and devotion linking Kochi and the Malabar Coast to the Arabian Gulf—from Roman spice routes and European empires to India’s import duties that fueled smuggling and Dubai’s rise as a “City of Gold.” Its title, drawn from a Malayalam phrase, evokes the care, devotion, and excess lavished by a parent on a child, while the word “like” emphasizes gold’s symbolic, transformative power across materials and mediums.
In this context, Abdul Jabbar presents Untitled (Frame), from the series Tracing Origins, Untitled (Crescent), from the series Tracing Origins, and Untitled (Palm), from the series Tracing Origins. In the series, she traces miniature ceramic reliefs collected from Iraq by her mother—objects rich with sites of childhood play, memory, and imagination. These fragments form the foundation of her artistic practice, connecting clay, memory, and place.
Through meticulous study and reconstruction, Abdul Jabbar assembles these fragments into spatial and temporal imaginaries—stages for stories shaped by displacement and the passage of time. The ceramics function as mnemonic anchors, preserving the past and offering portals across boundaries of memory. The engraved depictions of reed houses, spiraling minarets, and textured palm fronds reflect not only aesthetic refinement but the persistence of material culture and ancestral knowledge, carried across continents and restored after damage.
Working with clay, Abdul Jabbar performs gestures inherited across generations, uncovering a “language of form” that bridges memory and materiality. Tracing Origins engages with the interplay of memory, ancestry, and identity, questioning how remnants of the past endure and resist forgetting.
Like Gold/പൊന്നു പോലെ takes place at K.M Building, Fort Kochi, Kerala, until 21 March 2026.
December 16, 2025
