House of Mirrors

On a hot afternoon back in the middle of June I was fortunate enough to go on a tour to the House of Mirrors here in Kuwait.


(50 degrees Celsius (122F) outside at 5:29pm...)

Calling it the House of Mirrors is certainly no joke - the ENTIRE house is covered in mosaics made of pieces of mirror:


(House of Mirrors - front view and main entrance)


(House of Mirrors - front view. An 'Art Museum' it certainly is!)


(House of Mirrors - the main entrance)

Now, before you think this is part of an amusement park or some art project, let me just say that this is a private home (!) and the lady who transformed it from a typical Kuwaiti house to this House of Mirrors still lives there. Her name is Lidia Al Qattan - an Italian lady who has lived in Kuwait for decades and is the widow of the famous (at least within Kuwait) Khalifa Al Qattan. He was a pioneer artist and in the 1960s he created the school of circulism.

What mostly attracts people, though, is the chance to have a look inside this spectacular house:


(Wall decorations in the sitting room - note that the mirrors form not only animals but also Arabic writing)

Lidia Al Qattan didn't limit herself to a few wall decorations - in fact there seems to be no limits whatsoever to what she decorated with mirrors - including the ceiling and the fan:


(Mirror decorations on the walls and ceiling - and the fan - in the sitting room)

In between the many pieces of mirror there has been made space for some of the art work that the couple has produced over the years - including this portrait of Lidia by her husband...


(Lidia Al Qattan by Khalifa Al Qattan - framed by mosaics of mirror)


(A door in the sitting room - covered in mirrors)

Lidia got the idea of decorating her house with mosaics of mirror while her husband was away for an art exhibition - apparently she started with a piece of furniture and when her husband came back and said that he liked how it looked covered in pieces of mirror, she continued over the years until most of the house and furniture was covered...

Kitchen is pretty much covered as well (I guess she is saving the fridge project for a rainy day :)):


(Kitchen covered in mirrors)


(Kitchen covered in mirrors - fish, crabs, apples, grapes - nothing that cannot be made in mirror mosaic!)

Another view of the sitting area - with its leopard printed sofas where she invites her guests to sit and hear the life story of her and her husband, their art and not least the house while extending traditional Kuwaiti hospitality in the form of cake and drinks:


(Sitting room)

Like I said - there are no limits. Electrical socket? No problem!


(Mosaic on the electrical socket - and a fish mosaic, sitting room)

Most of the rooms have a theme - and this room is the Zodiac Hall with planets, galaxies, stars - she has put those little rubber stars that glow in the dark on the ceiling and her art work (the two round shapes in the picture) glow as well! Quite an experience. It is Lidia Al Qattan in the picture:


(Lidia Al Qattan explaining the room and about to hit the light switch leaving us all under the stars)

A few more examples of the extent of her project:


(Door phone covered in mosaic)

Even the bathroom was not spared (and let me again remind you that this is her private home!) - you better like the look of yourself in the morning if you do a bathroom like this!


(Tissue box in the bathroom)


(The shower, bathroom)


(The toilet itself, bathroom)

After everyone had taken turns to squeeze into the bathroom (wouldn't want to miss that!) she showed us more of her dedicated rooms - a lot of them focusing on the universe, galaxies etc. but still mixed with animal motifs and inscriptions from the Qur'an.


(View of the ceiling)


(A decorated cabinet standing on a decorated floor...)


(Patterns, circles, birds, Qur'an inscriptions, planets - and they are all connected in her mind and her thoughts behind the room)


(Bird mosaic - and one of those glow-in-the-dark stars)

Lidia doesn't just show you around her house - she tries to take you on a journey. All the rooms have meditative music, many of them incorporate some "show in the dark", glowing stars, glowing art, colored light...


(Colored light reflecting in the mosaics during one of the journeys...)


(Lots of colored light to add another dimension to the mosaic)


(A light switch and some more bird mosaic)

Here's a view of the sitting room I showed before - taken from the hall. The neon lights - and of course the fact that the walls have been painted blue - give the whole place the bluish shine.


(Sitting room)

Her library is decorated as well:


(Library)

If you look closely, the edges of the book shelves are covered in mirror mosaic and she certainly skipped no corners: behind the books there is mosaic as well!


(Mirror covered book shelves along with family pictures)


(From the courtyard)


(The courtyard and house facade with Arabic inscriptions and more animals)


(From the courtyard - it's about life-size)


(Front door)

Part of the tour also included a look into the first floor galleries - where her and her husband's art is on display. This room is dedicated to Khalifa Al Qattan (and therefore not covered in mirrors) and his accomplishments:


(Khalifa Al Qattan's room - with portraits, medals, photographs of him shaking royal hands)


(Khalifa and Lidia Al Qattan)

Some of Khalifa Al Qattan's art work on display:


(By Khalifa Al Qattan)


(By Khalifa Al Qattan)


(By Khalifa Al Qattan)

I'm not sure which one of them did these ones incorporating traditional Arabic objects but I believe it was her:



Much of Lidia Al Qattan's art work is also on display (and for sale):


(By Lidia Al Qattan)


(By Lidia Al Qattan)


(By Lidia Al Qattan)

Fancy a somewhat different candle holder?


(By Lidia Al Qattan)

It comes in a large version as well:


(By Lidia Al Qattan - oversized candle holder sculpture...)

As another part of the 'journey through her house' Lidia has built this room that also glows in the dark. It is really something else - spacey! The walls are made of a decorated fabric that velcro will stick to (I guess that explains why the flying skateboards stay on). Visitors are encouraged to throw the velcro-backed decorated triangles seen below at the wall and try and make them stick...


(Another glow-in-the-dark room - the triangles to the left are the ones you can throw at the wall and make stick)


(Close-up of the skateboard/space ship/UFO thing)

And last but not least another relaxation room (you can almost hear the meditative music) full of lit-up art, colored glass and the works:


(Relaxation room)

I certainly cannot imagine living in a house like this day in and day out - but you have to respect her for going after her vision/dream and completing it. In Kuwait it is extremely rare to let strangers into your house so the fact alone that she invites people in to see it is commendable (and probably only permissible since her husband has passed away). I truly appreciated the opportunity to meet Lidia and to see her house and am very grateful for her hospitality - but boy what a surreal place!!

Hot And Humid

About 10 days ago we went for a long walk. It is really one of our favorite things to do - just walk with no aim, get lost in narrow side streets, turn whenever there seems to be something interesting to look at. Unfortunately the weather has stopped us from taking these walks for quite a long time but then the temperatures dropped a bit and it was not humid so we walked for a couple of hours (stopping of course at every corner store to buy yet another bottle of water).

We found the 'Little India' of our area where most of the population is Indian migrant workers and where the restaurants serve traditional Indian food and the little clothes shops sell colorful saris. We also found the area where the very poor looking Arab migrant workers seem to cluster (many Arab migrant workers have office jobs but some are really at the bottom of the hierarchy here cleaning the streets for example).

In one street we found the Kabul Restaurant - a tiny place with no tables, a small menu/price list written in Arabic on the wall and a friendly Afghan man serving up portions of hearthy take-away food to the neighborhood people (mostly Indian residents and taxi drivers who stop by).


(Kabul Restaurant - keeping the food hot)

I am never very brave when it comes to taking pictures of people I don't know. I always fear that they might think I am doing it with some bad motive or to expose them in their state of poverty or hard labor. I'm afraid they think I regard them as a 'tourist attraction' - although this is in no way the case. Anyway, I got K to ask the Afghan restaurant owner if he would mind me taking a picture and he was happy to oblige:


(The owner of Kabul Restaurant and his young helper)


(Posing for the shot - the Kabul Restaurant owner and his helper)

Across from Kabul Restaurant there is a small hole-in-the-wall place that we almost walked past without noticing it. It has no signs of any kind and it is so narrow that you could almost reach from one end to the other. Inside these men are baking large, round bread known here as Iranian bread. The temperature inside is almost unbearable with 2 large fires burning inside the ovens.


(The 2 men baking the Iranian bread and placing them on a table - when someone buys them, they will be wrapped in a newspaper sheet)

The dough is spread out (like a pizza) on the white round thing next to the oven - then placed inside the oven on the wall. As you can see there are 3 people working in this tiny shop - I wonder how that is a viable business. I am sure the rent - as well as their salaries - is low but at 20 Fils for a bread (7 US Cents/5 € cents/40 øre) you need to sell a lot of bread to make a profit...


(Working the oven)


(Iranian bread baking)

So in the end we had a lovely meal for KD 1.080 ($3.73 / €2.93 / Kr. 21.80) and there was food enough for 3-4 people. I know this isn't cheap compared to street food in many other countries but in Kuwait where life is expensive and prices quite high, this is a bargain!


(A very nice and simple meal - the bread is lying on the sheet of newspaper we got them in)

So, the owner of the Kabul Restaurant had asked us in his broken English if we would bring him the pictures. We figured that if he asked for them it would be quite impolite not to give them to him - so we had a few copies printed and yesterday ventured out to give them to him.

The humidity is really high these days - it feels like you cannot breathe when you walk outside - a bit like walking inside a sauna. We had left home little after 6pm so we were not allowed to drink in public for the first half an hour or so due to Ramadan. As soon as the call to prayer was heard (indicating that the sun has set) we saw the staff of many of the local restaurants gather outside to eat huge plates of food and drink large bottles of water and soda. It's the first time I actually see anyone break the fast.

We only walked for about an hour in total to reach the Kabul Restaurant and go back home but the humidity made it feel like we had walked for hours and hours (even if we were taking it slow). I think it was only 35-40 degrees Celcius (95-104F).


(The shop window of a shoe shop in Salmiya - humidity blurring much of the window)


(Sweating in the humidity)

It is an interesting time of day to be walking around - the streets are almost deserted and you get that feeling that there has been a nuclear attack and you are the only one left in the world. Then some time after the sun has set, people start to come out into the streets - but mostly migrant workers and other expatriates (most of the Kuwaitis are at home with their families breaking the fast and only come out much later in the evening).

More humidity:


(The office window in our building)


(The entrance doors to our building)

I know this is not charming in any way but this is what a small evening stroll will do to you (mind you, without sunshine and daytime temperatures):


(Off to the shower...)


(Off to the shower...)