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Ask any Bahraini to describe their childhood and the aroma of bukhoor and frankincense will engulf their memory lane.
Drawing inspiration from these ephemeral images and paying homage to the incense burner’s power to protect and purify, Bahraini artist Faika Al Hassan last week unveiled her exhibition at the Bin Matar house in Muharraq.
The exhibition, titled Protection or Ta’aweetha in Arabic, translating to talisman, encompasses almost 30 pieces, and explores the customs and practices around the traditional use of frankincense in Bahraini households.
“A cloud of white smoke rising from a large wooden incense-burner forms the core of unforgotten images and scents from many childhood memories,” Faika told GulfWeekly.
“And although the tradition has started to fade with time, many of us still hold on to that undefined power of the ‘mubkhara’ - incense burner, placing it as the foundation of any household into which we move. It’s a habit inherited by daughters from their mothers, who in turn, inherited it from theirs.”
The wooden incense burner, ‘mubkhara’, is a core motif in most of the work currently on display at the Bin Matar House.
Found in every traditional Bahraini household, the pyramidical wooden structure was used to perfume and disinfect clothes that would be draped over it.
“I remembered when we were young that in my grandparents’ house they used to use the mubhkara and this specific incense to disinfect all of the house from diseases,” Faika added.
The centrepiece of the exhibition is a massive mubkhara-esque structure, with white cloth draped over it. On each wooden bar are inscribed Quranic verses, believed to bestow blessings and keep evil spirits at bay.
Within the wooden frame is a type of frankincense - Liban in Arabic - arranged in the shape of an eye, to protect the dwelling against the evil eye of greed.
“I wrote on it the wordings that our ancestors used to repeat during that time to bring good energy and good omen and get rid of evil spirits,” Faika added.
“The white cloth represents bedsheets and bed linen that they used to disinfect by using the mubkharas.”
In the smaller mubkharas, small human figures are painted trudging along the insides and outsides of the structure, signifying ‘the people that live in this universe and how we react to all of what happens in this world’.
The idea of disinfecting and staying safe has particularly been important to Faika during the pandemic.
“Faika’s work often feeds off periods of disruption and transition,” Melissa Enders-Bhatia, Shaikh Ebrahim bin Mohammed Al Khalifa Centre for Culture and Research director, added.
“Here she has found herself in the midst of a pandemic and was reminded of ancient remedies and answers to illness and infection.
“Protection is an ode to the security of the home and traditional rituals, while also being tinged with nostalgia for a practice that is quickly being lost amongst the coming generations.”
Born in Bahrain, Faika studied economics at the Baghdad University, completing her education in 1977.
Her art career began when she took a course at the Bahrain Arts Society. As she explored art, the small human-inspired figures seen on the mubkharas have become her unique signature.
As Melissa puts it, the figures ‘seem to be teeming with activity yet are isolated and inconsequential in the towering settings they find themselves in’.
During her prolific career, Faika has exhibitied across the Gulf, in Australia, Egypt, France, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Syria, Yemen, Jordan, UK, Belgium, Italy, Spain and Morocco.
She also won the Al Saafa Prize for GCC Fine Art and Lines in 2009.
The Protection art exhibition is now open at the Bin Matar House until May 8. For more details, follow
@shaikh_ebrahim_center on Instagram.
