THE COFFEE BEANS
Jamal HABROUSH AL SUWAIDI's work celebrates what has come to be known as a universal and unifying symbol of friendship and hospitality.
An installation by AL SUWAIDI sees the Emirati artist draw on one of the world’s best-known symbols of hospitality and welcoming gestures for inspiration – the coffee bean.
Taking the form of a multi-coloured, large-scale artwork, “THE COFFEE BEANS”, features seven metal components, each varying in shape, size and shade. Devoid of decorative or dynamic flourishes, its geometric simplicity gives the overall work a distinctive beauty, while ensuring that each separate piece is immediately identifiable.
The decision to create seven beans is a nod to coffee’s recognition across the globe as an essential part of social occasions and a universal sign of friendship. Seven is not only the number of continents in the world – namely Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America – but is also the total number of the emirates that make up the UAE.
Created in an array of uplifting colors and sizes, the artworks acknowledge the differences in both the coffee beans that are used to make the drink we love and the people that populate the world while reaffirming that we all form part of the human race, irrespective of where we live.
Playing with composition, AL SUWAIDI uses distance and positioning to accentuate the relationship each component has with the others. Building on this theme and in another important symbolic display, the split in the middle of coffee beans reminds us that each continent acts as a gateway to another part of the world. We are all connected and none of us exists alone.
AL SUWAIDI explained that he’d been keen to highlight coffee’s universally recognized role as something to be enjoyed amongst families, friends, and their guests, while also drawing on his personal memories of what the bean represents in the Arab World.
“Coffee has been a symbol of generosity, warmth and friendship for centuries in this part of the world, deeply embedded in our culture and heritage, and now adopted in the same manner elsewhere,” he said. “When creating this work, I was reminded not only of the many ways in which coffee is enjoyed around the globe, but also of the smaller details, such as its unmistakable aroma, either in the kitchen or from the lorries carrying the beans as they pass through the villages of my country, and the ability it has to lift the mood.” the artist added.
Gertrude Stein also said, “coffee is a lot more than just a drink…”
“THE COFFEE BEANS” series is included at the permanent collection of The National Museum of China.