LONDON.- Leighton House presents From Water, Every Living Thing, a new site-specific video installation by London-born artist Soraya Syed, as part of the museum’s interdisciplinary project The Arab Hall: Past and Present. On display from 30 July to 4 October 2026, this new commission transforms the Hall's historic fountain into a living work where moving calligraphy, projection, water and sound come together in dialogue with one of Britain's most extraordinary interiors.
Created by Victorian artist Frederic Leighton (1830-1896) following extensive travels across North Africa and the Middle East, the Arab Hall was conceived as a spectacular extension to his Kensington studio-house – a blend of Islamic, Mediterranean and Victorian craft traditions, the centrepiece of which is the collection of antique tiles from Damascus, Turkey and Iran which line its walls. Since its completion in 1881, the Arab Hall has become an important place for discovery and debate, for contemplation and creativity that continues to resonate with visitors, researchers and creatives today.
Rather than introducing a new object into this remarkable space, Syed's work activates its architectural heart, allowing the fountain itself to become both artwork and medium, inspired by the Hall's inscriptions, stained-glass windows and celebrated tilework. Taking its title from the Qur'anic verse, "From water We made every living thing", the three-minute projected video explores the universal symbolism of water as a source of life, renewal and connection.
The letters Kāf Hā Yā ʿAyn Ṣād, inscribed within the Arab Hall's stained-glass windows, emerge across the water. They draw upon the Hizb al-Bahr (The Litany of the Sea), a celebrated devotional text traditionally recited for protection. Originally composed for travellers undertaking sea voyages, it has, over the centuries, become a prayer recited widely in times of uncertainty and need. The piece will unfold as visitors linger and explore the space, sensitively responding to the hall’s acoustics and atmosphere to create a moment to pause and reflect.
Soraya Syed said: "Returning to Leighton House thirteen years after my solo exhibition ‘Hurriyah’ to create a piece for the Arab Hall is both a privilege and a joy. Rather than adding something to this extraordinary space, I wanted to create a work that grows out of it. Water became the starting point for exploring the relationships between movement and stillness, self and other, permanence and change, and our enduring dependence on an element whose capacity to sustain life has always existed alongside its power to endanger it."
Attracting record visitor numbers since its opening on 21 March, The Arab Hall: Past and Present is the first major exploration of Leighton House’s 19th century Arab Hall, one of London’s most iconic interiors. As a central part of Leighton House’s 100-year anniversary programme, this collaborative and interdisciplinary project examines the space’s remarkable history and its continued relevance today through three site-specific art installations, a specially commissioned short film, and an exhibition and new publication by Dr Melanie Gibson, containing extensive new research.
