About Us
{Welcome},{Salams), {Peace}
What do we sell?
Contemporary Art, Funky Photography and Uniquely designed Jewellery with a spattering of papergoods.
Where are we based?
In sunny Sydney, Australia.
What is the Souk “philosophy”?
Souk Collective is about uplifting your soul and spirit through the visual and tactile experience. Enrich and enhance your day to day life with aesthetic inspiration, ultimately to reflect and invoke remembrance of the Divine.
influenced, inspired, invoked, sojourned, surrendered , loved, lived, lingered…
Where did the idea for Souk Collective originate?
Souk Collective is a company born from the experience of many travels in different lands, filled with ideas from encounters of the everyday and the unique. inspired by the sights of bustling life and by the quietude of land for miles and influenced by the aromas and flavours of the global marketplace.
The idea for Souk Collective formed whilst living in Morocco in 2001. The idea was to start a company to market inspired art/object/designs worldwide for a discerning market and enrich people’s lives and homes with things that remind oneself of the Divine and beauty in this world. It was appropriately named “Souk Collective“. (Souk in Arabic means ‘Traditional Marketplace’)
What was the inspiration for the name?
The inspiration for the name ‘Souk Collective‘ was a combination of elements… experiencing the souks of Morocco with their lively colours and people, walking through the majestic halls of the Alhambra in Granada, Spain, traveling to distant and remote parts of the globe and seeing exquisite craftsmanship and the connection of the spiritual to earth.
A note from Zahrah:
Thank you for taking the time to find out a bit more about Souk Collective. I have always known, deep down that my love of the arts would flourish into something and here it is, Souk Collective is the idea I started with in 2001, the company that was setup to profile and sell my artworks, design work and photography. My grand vision for it… eventually was that it would be a real “Collective” and stock art and objects inspired by the divine, made by artisans from all over the world.
My ideals are slowly coming to fruition. At the moment on this site you can purchase my cards and prints and artworks but soon there will be other designers/artists/crafts men and women profiled and showcased on here, inshallah.
Below is a little more about me and my vision…
I am the little girl who would count the bubble gum stuck on the pavement. The young woman that would sit in a coffee shop and listen to the world fly by. The mother who watches her son discover his fingers and toes. I love detail & for as long as I can remember I have been a collector of images and objects. I am a mother, an artist, and a designer. I am a traveler and one who makes and collects all things beautiful.}
Reflections/Thoughts/Perspectives
-Zahrah Habibullah-Williams
The wisdom for my work: Contemplate the Divine
In the name of God the Most Gracious Most Merciful
Life is fleeting as the wind, yet we have been given the reason and intellect to expand our lives as we choose. I know this path was chosen for me and I choose this path.
I love getting my hands into work, making jewellery, painting
Functional objects
Interior Design/Architecture
I have always loved the lines and curves of buildings.
I love to be organised, 2-3 days max in utter chaos
I LOVE Colour
Space
Glass, modern materials, ancient materials
I love studying the small and intricate, the unnoticed
Elements of earth, wind, water, fire
Books on EVERYTHING
Knowledge is the key to success
Family, Friends
Edward Weston’s Photographs take my breath away
Poetry of Gwen Harwood, Keats
Al Ghazzali, Rumi
Shakespeares Solioquies
Degas, O’Keeffe, Hopper
Creativity in the dead of the night
Painting in the early light of morning
Pavarotti
Watching the world go by
Soaking in details and wondering what if’s…
Does grass sleep? What design does a set of footprints make?
What do those car number plates stand for?
“To see a world in a grain of sand and a heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in your hand and eternity in an hour.” Unknown source
I love magazines, love a rainy day with old magazines and a pair of scissors.
“Time wears out bodies
Even as it renews hopes
It brings death nearer
And removes aspiration
Whoever takes advantage of it
Becomes exhausted
Whoever lets it slip by toils.”
From “Living and Dying with Grace” Hadrat Ali
There is no wealth like intelligence
And no poverty like ignorance
There is no heritage like culture
And no back up like consultation
From “Living and Dying with Grace” Hadrat Ali
Expectation-Zahrah
When we go to sleep at night do we expect to wake up?
When we start our day do we expect to finish it?
When we embark on a journey do we expect to return?
Never expect that what you intended will be
For what is in every moment to come is unknown.
What purpose do we have? What is our calling? What if our calling is right in front of us and we can’t see it?
“Freedom is the right to hold conflicting views.” Walter DeMaria, American Artist.
Blind as anything to the truth because there is so much concealment.
Life can be blatantly simple when we want
and
absolute chaos if we choose.
People have great difficulty in belief of what they cannot tangibly hold.
“Still in a way
Nobody sees a flower
Really
It is so small
We haven’t the time
And to see takes time
Like to have a friend takes time.”
Georgia O’Keeffe
I love New Zealand (Aotearoa) it is my birth place and where I spent my childhood.
It’s where I was taught the love and appreciation of nature, growing up next to the sea, camping in beautiful forests, appreciating every fern, every leaf, every cloud.
Maori Culture, Tradition and Patterns
Transformation of materials
Metamorphosis
Like a butterfly – turning things over and over
Using recycled material
Material, flexibility, functionality
I love travelling, exploring nooks and crannies
Discovery of the unknown and trying of something new
Taking some risks and going on an adventure.
Belief in the Unseen.
I like things that are intricate and decorative purely for the sake of beauty.
My artwork is a myriad of things, I think mainly it is to express what is inside me, its my vehicle to express my ideals and ideas about my faith and my culture.
I don’t think my work defines me as I am constantly learning and evolving and becoming a new person, I feel most of my work is a window into my soul and portrays my beliefs.
The deepest inspiration for my work is from God. I feel that my ability to create artwork is a gift from God to utilise in the best way I can.
I always knew from a very young age that this was my calling and that I would use this gift as a medium of visually expressing who I was and what I believed in.
I feel blessed to have my life, I love every moment, yes even the difficult moments that have shaped who I have become and I feel that those moments of difficulty have made me so much stronger, there is a saying that I love to remind myself of often and that is that If God gives you adversity it is because he is testing those that He loves.
Verily with difficulty, comes ease.
I am grateful for my everyday things, my parents for their love and support, my son – a beautiful little soul, my siblings for hearty laughs, my friends for late night calls and a shoulder to cry on. They help me make a reality what I have visions of.
These are some of the things that make up who I am.
I am Zahrah
Zestful
Artistic
Hopeful
Reflective
Ambitious
Happy.
Nice to meet you.
Z