About the Series

During the years that Salwa Abuljadayel spent studying Theatre in Emerson College, she discovered an old vinyl record of Gustav Mahler’s 3rd Symphony recorded by the Vienna Orchestra and conducted by F. Charles Adler in 1952. For Abuljadayel, the record posed more questions than answers. As does most classical music; where the listener is invited to carve their own answers.

Mrs. Mahler wrote an introduction for her husband when the symphony was published, in which she drew the scenes that inspired the composer:

“Gustav Mahler described to me the feelings of horror and turmoil that came over him as he entered for the first time, the lonely secret house…in the woods” she continues “As he stood for the first time before this hut, Nature began to murmur to him, then to storm, then to scream.”

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Part III of Mahler’s 3rd Symphony played as an inspiration behind Salwa Abuljadayel’s Series What Animals in Nature Show Us. 

Each artwork explores the relationship between humans and animals. Inspecting where they connect, how they dissect, and what drives the narrative.

The stark white/blank spaces recall how Abuljadayel first started drawing, and sketching on school homework and tests with a pencil and a black ink pen. The palette robs away the expectations of how nature is depicted inside the canvas's construct.