Ameena Aljarman: Grandma Ameena Wishes

Revisiting memories through hand rituals

Ameena Aljarman, Grandma Ameena Wishes film still (2019). Video installation. Image courtesy of the artist.

With text by Janet Bellotto, artist and educator.

Emirati artist Ameena Aljarman explores space and time through personal memories and cultural traditions. Aljarman shares the background of her video project, stating that: “I asked my Grandmother why she used to dip our hands in goat’s blood during Eid Al Adha celebrations, and it seemed that she believed the ritual will make our wishes come true and protect us. And I vividly remember all the colours, smells and sounds, everything that she did during the ritual.”

The dreamy recollection of a ritual moves through the video as henna-marked hands wash over one another, coinciding with waves collapsing. We journey through a narrative of womanhood and of passing on rituals to another generation, segmented like our memories while shifting from seashore to sea. Aljarman’s grandmother’s ritual is infused with memories from when she first traveled to India in 1949, as she said “with [my] hands, everything is engraved, even my eternal love of the sea.”