Rina Jaber

B. 19--, Romania

Rina Jaber is a ceramic artist born in Romania and raised in Libya and Lebanon. Her life journey led her to Tokyo, where she was granted a scholarship to study at the prestigious Tama Art University. During her nine years in Japan, she pursued postgraduate studies in architecture while concurrently practicing pottery. Since then, she has apprenticed, developed, and worked in ceramic art, drawing inspiration from her understanding of architecture and her fascination with traditional Japanese aesthetics. Eventually, she returned to Lebanon to embark on her artistic career.

About her Work

Rina strives to convey profound and mysterious concepts such as Wabi-sabi, Yugen, and Shibui that cannot be easily expressed in words. She employs the technique of hand-building, completely excluding the potter's wheel, allowing for a direct interaction between the artist and the clay. While working, she is mindful that every stroke or touch will leave an everlasting mark on the ceramic object, surpassing even the passage of millennia.

About Data Access for Future Millennia

In our modern era, the majority, if not all, of our information is stored in digital or paper format, both of which are vulnerable to harsh conditions or disasters. Rina's ceramic artwork aims to record information on durable ceramic material, immortalizing it and offering glimpses of our technological advancements to future generations. This process takes inspiration from ancient cultures like Mesopotamia, which granted us access to their culture and information through the use of clay tablets. The enduring resilience of vitrified clay tablets, withstanding extreme temperatures, humidity, and other challenging conditions, was likely the reason it was chosen as the first and preferred medium for writing. Similarly, we can now immortalize our modern-day data on clay, allowing it to be discovered millennia from now. This creates a contrast between the intangible and immaterial nature of computer data and the material, solid nature of clay. Another contrast emerges between the archaic appearance of inscribed clay tablets and the ultra-modern impression of computer algorithms and binary codes.

Leila Jabre-Jureidini

Leila Kubba Kawash