Remember The Future: Oneiric Artifacts from Mesopotamia ​
This webpage is a review of Hala Alsalman’s exhibition at the
Graduate Gallery, Ontario College of Art and Design University, June 6-12, 2024.
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Rod and Ring, stoneware clay, iron chips, glaze, 23x3 in, 14x14 in, 2024

​Hala Alsalman is an Iraqi-Canadian artist who grew up in Montreal and now resides in Toronto. She worked in film and news media for two decades before completing a master’s program in 2024. For her thesis, she researched the extensive archeological records of historic Mesopotamia, situated in Iraq. In this fertile cradle of civilization, the earliest evidence of writing emerged around 3500 BC, set as symbols in clay tablets. Messages and stories continued to unfold in clay and stone for millennia.

​In her research, Alsalman became fascinated by a recurring Mesopotamian symbol, the conjoined rod and ring, held only by gods and goddesses. Much debated by scholars, the shapes of “The Rod and The Ring” may signify linear and eternal time, as well as the transfer of divine power to earthly rulers and realms. This sacred symbol initiated her thesis question: “What seed of ancient wisdom, buried in deep time, could re-emerge in Iraq’s distant future?”

Oneiric means dream-related. While pondering esoteric ideas about her Iraqi ancestors, who used dreams to divine the future and travel through time, Alsalman found a doorway. It led into the ceramic studio at the Ontario College of Art and Design University, a state-of-the-art facility. Hala took her imagination into the distant future by placing her hands in the traditional medium of clay. “I was thirsty to work with my hands after many years of writing and research,” she says. Time disappeared as she moulded the tactile material, working energetically without a clear vision of the final forms. “It was an organic process,” she says, “the way the artifacts came into being was spontaneous, inexplicable and awe-inspiring.”
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Family Roots, stoneware clay, glaze, copper, lapis lazuli, 51x17 in, 2024

Dream Recall (detail), stoneware clay, iron chips, glaze, 11x8 in, 2024

Dream Recall, silk, video projection, stoneware clay, iron chips, glaze, 2024

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​Alsalman’s thesis posits that cycles of history repeat. We view this in our present-day world in cross-cultural myths that recall the flood and a lost, prehistoric civilization. Myths about the flood also appear in Mesopotamian literature through the Epic of Gilgamesh, which features an ark and paired inhabitants. Alsalman queries: “How would a society forced to start over manifest?” In her exhibit, she uses film and ceramics to show how a future civilization might re-form around a spiritual centre.

With this in mind, images of the artifacts exude an aura of peaceful mystery that invites inquiry. The artworks presented come from a future time - 1000 years hence. Yet, they are excavated objects from a bygone era, labelled as “prehistoric”, with their function and significance under speculation. We become viewers in a future-museum setting marvelling at the beauty and enigma of the treasures. There is serenity in the rounded, ceramic forms, glowing with aqua and earth-tone glazes. The folded entwined hands suggest invocation and protection, appearing feminine in form and expression. The jangling copper sculpture is matrilineal. The horizontal copper plate at the top shows four holes depicting the first matriarchs. Each copper piece varies in size and shape, denoting descendants. The lapis lazuli beads and circular pendants recall women who died in childbirth or deceased infants.
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Detail: Family Roots

Ritual, slip and stoneware clay, glaze, copper, 2024

Alsalman’s dream of an altruistic future comes in part from her concerns over present-day conflicts and the horrors of war. She dedicated her project to the children of Gaza, innocent victims of violence since 2023. How could our future be different, kinder, more just? The artist believes that bringing female energy to the forefront in political and social settings would assist this shift to a more balanced society.
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​Above: The Rod and The Ring, stills from the 9-minute video, filmed across Iraq, that present scenes from a dream-like future.

​The Rod and The Ring is a nine-minute looping video that was shown adjacent to the Artifact Room at the exhibition. As Director, Alsalman chose three filming sites, areas she knows well from visiting family and friends in Iraq. Alsalman had the assistance of an experienced production team, both in Iraq and Toronto. She edited the film and created the score. The dream like scenes in the film use the symbolic shapes of rod and ring to suggest a future world wherein divine energies animate the natural world, creating a heaven on earth or return to Eden. The video is not yet available for the general public to view.
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In 2025 Alsalman received major funding from the Canada Council for the Arts for her next project. Selected artworks from this exhibition will be on view from March-June 2026 at Art Windsor-Essex in L’ air est lourd (the air is heavy).

Visit Hala's website HERE

​​Web Design and Content by Kate Cino. Arts writer published in Focus on Victoria, Yam and Boulevard. 
History in Art degree and Public Relations certificate from the University of Victoria. 
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