Visual Artist Jaffar Al Haddad grew up in a blacksmith’s family that was established for more than a century, as his grandfather was the well-known Hajj Hassan. There was a point in time, he owned 16 out of 24 workshops in Manama, so he had a stronghold the trade, the community playfully calling him “Baroon Al Haddada”.
There was a point in time the market in Bahrain was the best market in the Gulf. But this time could not last forever and as the market modernized, it broke up, once they started to build up big iron factories in Bahrain as the infrastructure of the country changed and became more industrialized.
When these local trade markets were powerful, they were once tenets of the community. Haddad’s work draws literal links between the shade where people draw comfort and willfully dive into reflection from sitting in an old chair, the blacksmith’s chair is a symbol of the stability and support of the community, under which we are under the shade of history. It is where we go for reprieve from our present day troubles, and we reflect in the stories of the past. Haddad’s chair is the story of one family, but his is connected to many diverse and interlocking stories of families from all over the country. His artwork is an installation which plays on the inter-connectedness of these stories. A carefully presented product of craft and labour, it shows how nostalgia can be more than a pastime, it is something that is passed between generations and for better or worse, we stand in its shadow.
