Scenes of a Matrimony, 2025

Scenes of a Matrimony (2025) reanimates Safeya Binzagr’s seminal paintings into a sequence of Hijazi wedding rites. It opens with The Trousseau (1972), where women prepare the bride’s belongings and share gifts of textiles, jewelry, and food. Al Henna (1969) follows on the eve of the wedding, as the bride is adorned by the henna artist behind a decorated curtain while songs rise and sharbat is served. The sequence culminates in Al Nassah (1975), when the bride appears before the groom for the first time, veiled in silk and silver embroidery, honored by verses from the Qur’an and unveiled in a moment of reverence and beauty. Through animation, these works return to public view as a single field of memory, uniting warmth, craft, and ritual into a portrait of social life in the Hijaz.