There are not many things you can do in Jeddah. If you are obsessed with shopping, Balad and Tahlia are your destinations. If you love the beach, you can walk along the Corniche Road or rent a private villa in Obhur. If you are a food lover, you can try a different kind of Arabic foods and smoke shisha in the middle of the City or beside the Red Sea. Or if you like being in a desert, you can go on a desert adventure and explore the vast Saudi Arabia’s desert.
Although it is quite boring (because I’m a “mountain” person), Jeddah is a unique city. According to Wikipedia, the city has “the largest open-air art gallery in the world.” There are many sculptures and modern artworks with different kind of designs, themes, and materials. Works by international sculptors from Henry Moore, Arnaldo Pomodoro, Jacques Lipchitz to Joan Miró are publicly displayed along the Cornish Road beside the beach and in every roundabout across the city. Wanna have a look?
This one is the famous Bicycle Roundabout (Maidan ad-Darrajah). The 15-meter bicycle, created by Julio Lafuente, is located around Sitteen Street. All Indonesian pilgrims refer it as ‘Sepeda Nabi Adam‘. I have no idea how the rumour first came out, but don’t take it seriously! 😀 It’s obviously not true.
There’s also a beautiful giant globe, called “The World” by Lafuente. It looks okay during the day, but I swear to God… it appears magnificent at night!!! (Too bad that I can only find this small night version picture) Its light shines the globe from the inside making it a beautiful giant blue earth. When I was a kid, I always felt fascinated to pass this fake earth, as it is located in a wealthy district in Jeddah. I could see many royal palaces and massive houses around the suburb. My sister and I used to decide which of those houses belong to me and which of them belong to her. “Oh.. that’s mine! That’s also mine!” Hehehe. Beside this blue globe, there’s another type of giant globe here.
Perhaps the most unusual artwork is this one:
Not only can you find cars being displayed in Jeddah’s roundabouts, but you can also find ships (wooden AND metal), aircrafts, and boats.
Along the side of the famous Corniche Road, there are MANY sculptures being exhibited here. The difference between those that are displayed in the museum is that these works can be visited 24 hours, 7 days a week! Hehehe. There’s not even a single restriction – you can sit on them, touch them, or even kiss them :P. Not only can you enjoy those magnificent works, but you can also see the beautiful beach of the Red Sea and the impressive 312-meter King Fahd’s Fountain. These are SOME (yes, only some) of the sculptures: (HEY! I used to play hide and seek with my sister here!! 😀 )
The front-most sculpture in the left-hand side picture of the first row is a work by Henry Moore. It is called Oval with Points and the exact same one is currently being displayed at Princeton University, NJ. The sculpture bears a relationship to one of Moore’s favourite found objects — an elephant skull acquired in East Africa by scientist Julian Huxley and his wife Juliette. The right-hand side picture of the same row is an artwork of Joan Miró. And I can only guess that the two cubes in the left-hand side picture of the second row is a sculpture of Victor Vasarely because these cubes displayed in Hungary are quite similar with those displayed in the picture above :D.
And there are some more… from different locations:
Notice that there is not even a single statue being displayed in this city (AND all other cities in Saudi Arabia). Why is that? Well, according to the government, Islam prohibits statues and three-dimensional figures of the living creatures. My mom was once ALMOST caught in the airport when she tried to “smuggle” in the wayang puppet made of wood. It’s forbidden. I also saw my brother’s textbooks. Some of them have drawings of human… and all of them have a thin line drawn on the neck. I have no idea why they did that. The situation was even WORST in 1989 when my family and I arrived in Mekkah for the first time. Dad said it’s soooo hard to find a teddy bear (or panda) doll there… as it’s forbidden!!! (And I kept crying coz my doll was stolen 😛 ). But now, you can find many kinds of dolls… no problem! 😀
- Don’t forget to check out my Google Maps on Jeddah
- You can see other sculptures here.
Most pictures are taken from Flickr (links are provided on each picture). Some of them are taken from here, here, and here.
16 Responses
wah keren2 sculpture nya =), “sepeda nabi adam”-nya bagus juga ya hehehe..
ada2 aja orang indo
I lolololove your design !. Dua jempol tangan plus dua jempol kaki! Huehehe.
Oh ya, penasaran sama Font yang buat entry title, namanya apa ya ?.
Salam Kenal ya mell, can I link you in my blog ? 🙂
Vita: Thanks so much, Vita 🙂 . Salam kenal juga yah… Yap, you can link my blog. Fontnya bisa kamu download disini.
Thank you ! So nice of you 😀 Waiting for the next entry in your bloggy
Blognya bagus… Salam kenal saja dari kota Bengawan Indonesia. Saya lihat link ini dari Blog nya Frater Rethar.
wahh keren2 pahatan dan patung2nya yahh… salut di kota banyak bangeed patung dan pahatan2 yang bagus2 gituw..
kayaknya di jkt juga ga sebanyak itu deh.,…
iya euy keren keren…
tapi, kebanyakan pahatan itu diimpor dari luar negeri kan ya?
sayang banget tuh. ini sindrom kaum kaya, yakni “kalo bisa beli, ngapain harus susah-susah berkreativitas?”
hehe.. what d u think, Amel?
debukaki: iya Rif, itu bikinan luar negeri. dan benar sekali, sindrom kaum kaya hahaha. padahal, it’s amazing loh, bisa melihat arsitektur Masjidil Haram & Masjid Nabawi.. sooo artistic!! Kalo mereka bisa membangun sebuah mesjid sebesar en semegah itu dgn arsitektur yg bener2 detail (yes, i mean it.. it’s SOOOOOOO detail. i’m always amazed when i see it, though i’ve been there for couple of times), it’s ashamed that mereka gak “mau” bikin ‘pajangan2’ tersebut yg ukurannya sebenarnya gak seberapa dibanding dengan mesjid2 megah itu. Ya, lazy ppl 😛
firs of all what language is used for these comments that are written… gee they’re pretty wierd..lol.J.k… any ways i think these sculptures are amazing i am from america and i can tell you that we don’t have these kinds of cool gigantic sculpters in america. one day i’ll go visit Jeddah just to see them…can’t wait…
All these pics reminds me my golden childhood . Still now when i remember all those memory of my littlehood and ofcourse in the weekend when we went across the RED Sea these sculptures was like dream in the eye of anlittle angle .I wish I could visit Jeddah and get back all my dreams across the Red sea and across those Sculptures .
Before few years I was a driver in Train lake restaurant Jeddah, I like Jeddah, I like people of Jeddah, also I like my boss Mr. Marwan Dugmash & Mr. Amir al aboud
Bismillah
Assalamalaikum, Dear Artist
I Appreciate ur fine efforts. Please also Capture Arab, Turkey and Persian Arts and Architectures of Ancient Hejazi Culture.
Mostly from areas of Balad, Babshareef, Babmakkah, Hindawiyah, Sharafiyah, Baghdadiya and Hayal Nuzlah.
cool pics dude