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Archive for January, 2010

Kuwaiti Diaries IV: The Last City

Posted in Architecture, digital collage, photography, writing, architecture, Kuwaiti Diaries, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , on January 24, 2010| 2 Comments »

House in the 'Beit Al-Badr' complex, in the old part of Kuwait City. January 2010


As they used to say in old time radio ‘ This concludes our series’.

From Lonely Planet:

A traditional mud-built house, with heavy carved doors, Beit al-Badr was built between 1838 and 1848 and is one of the last examples of pre-oil residential architecture in the city. It is located alongside Sadu House.

A new multilane rotatory car-belt is being built adjacent the complex; the sight of the construction crews left me forlorn, mourning a loss that was not mine, and yet affected me – the loss of worn pathways, the tyranny of cars.
Half around the world, once again, cities are designed around automobiles, and not people.

So yes, this is the last installment of my Kuwaiti photography (for now?)
I still have some drawings to share, and a way to hold on to this trip for a few more days.

Traveling begets traveling, and the only cure for the invariable melancholia that follows a return home is to plan the next escapade.

Goodbye Kuwait


The world is a book, and those who do not travel, read only one page.


Saint Augustine





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Kuwaiti Diaries III – The Desert {I’m back}

Posted in art,poetry,writing, Kuwaiti Diaries, tagged , , , , , , , , on January 21, 2010| 3 Comments »




Well, I cannot believe almost three weeks went by since the last post! I returned from my incredible trip on the 7th of the month and school kickedoff at  lightning speed.  I have two more classes I am teaching this quarter, so there’s been quite a bit of readjustment. But I am back- and it feels good-  and I still have two more installments of my Kuwaiti Diaries.

As the days and weeks go by, and as I go through the hundreds of photos I took, the notion that I was actually–ever-too-briefly– in this faraway country of pied beauty, of warm and generous people, and of jarring contrasts between tradition and modernity seems closer and closer to the realm of Illusion.  I left just as I was beginning to understand.

I hope you enjoy what I brought back.

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Kuwaiti Diaries II- Al-M’barakiya

Posted in Architecture, art,poetry,writing, Kuwaiti Diaries, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 2, 2010| 4 Comments »

The local ‘Souq’ is called Mubarakiya, named after Mubarak, a leader who was the sheik (‘shehk’, family ruler) from the Al-Sabah family, which is still the ruling family of modern Kuwait. Kuwait combines ancient tradition with a democratic political system (Parliament), and is a melting pot of past and present, as I was able to see in the Mubarakiya.

Kuwait | The Present and The Present

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Kuwaiti Diaries I- Al-Boom

Posted in Architecture, Kuwaiti Diaries, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on January 1, 2010| 1 Comment »

Lights from Kuwait City. Just before the new year, overlooking the Arabian Gulf.

Happy New Year.

I welcomed 2010 on a beach, overlooking the Arabian Gulf.

In Italy we say that what you do the first day of the year you will do all year, and I would love to continue doing art -and posting it- all of 2010. I am in Kuwait for the holidays and, feeling like a foreign correspondant, I offer these sights. I do not have my usual computer- and Photoshop, so here are these images, raw, unedited, uncropped, uncaptioned.  I hope you will enjoy them.

This is the Al-Boom and surrounding areas, my first sighting of Kuwait and its history. It is also called the Hashemi, a recent reproduction of the ancient vessel (Kuwaitis were sea-people, like my father, merchants and pearl collectors).

The Al- Boom is the biggest man made vessel constructed out of wood , its interior is used as a reception hall. I found it magnificent, and the details were exquisite, something to revel on.

Kuwait/ Hidden Eden/ Pearls in the Shell

Gallery Updated  Jan.2, 2010

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