Dana Awartani’s installation @ Desert X AlUla 2022, photo by Lance Gerber.
Landscape, Art – The artists have responded to the theme Sarab, Mirage and Osasis with site-specific works addressing dreams, camouflage, fiction, dis/appearance, extraction, illusion and myth while also examining the dichotomy between the natural and man-made worlds. “The desert concepts of mirage and oasis have long been tied to ideas of survival, perseverance, desire and wealth.” Explains Reem Fadda, curatorial advisor to Desert X AlUla 2022.
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Alicja Kwade’s installation.
“The oasis pertains to ideas of finding prosperity or heaven, while the mirage is a universal symbol of the mysteries of imagination and reality. They also connote the incomprehensible beauty and abundance of nature in its most bereft state – the desert – and humans’ obsessive desire to capture and control it. [The installations] address profound issues that emerge from the local context but also resonate with audiences the world over.”
Sultan Bin Fahad’s installation.
Jedda-based Dana Awartani has created a sculpture drawing inspiration from AlUla’s vernacular architecture. Taking the form of a concave geometric sculpture, the installation references the Nabataean tombs and mimics the shapes of surrounding mountains, gorges, caverns and rock formations.
Dana Awartani’s installation.
Swiss artist Claudia Comte presents a progression of walls imposing their architectural presence within the surrounding canyon. Each wall carries a section of a larger algorithmic pattern relating to the waveforms that shape the sound and surface of the desert.
Claudia Comte’s installation.
Alicja Kwade built architectural structures reflecting and framing the natural artifacts she encountered on the desert floor. The Polish artist has rearranged and supplemented them to create constantly changing perspectives that strike the fine line between reality and illusion.
Alicja Kwade’s installation.
Serge Attukwei Clottey continues his Afrogallonism art project and research with installation addressing the experience of globalisation, migration and water equity. The Ghanian creative has created a fall-like installation gushing from the rocks and made of meticulously crafted tapestries upcycled from yellow Kufuor gallons, which are plastic containers used in Ghana for storing and transporting water.
Serge Attukwei Clottey’s installation.
Saudi artist Sultan bin Fahad’s mud structure is shaped like a desert kite, with mirrors on the façade that create the look of a mirage. It houses an urn-like sculpture embossed with four protective symbols traditionally used in Nabatean tombs.
Sultan Bin Fahad’s installation.
Land American artist Jim Denevan has created ephemeral drawings whose interlocking patterns speak to the shifts in magnitude and scale that so often shape our experience of the desert and our attempts to position ourselves within the vastness of unbounded space.
Jim Denevan’s installation.
Working at the intersection of nature and technology, Stephanie Deumer has created an underground greenhouse. Hinting at the lush sanctuary of native plants below, the Canadian artist’s large puddle-shaped array of solar panels mounted flush with the desert floor creates an energy feedback loop where the sun’s energy is captured, stored and transformed through photosynthesis into growth and transformation.
Stephanie Deumer’s installation.
Under the curatorial vision of Reem Fadda, Raneem Farsi and Neville Wakefield, Desert X AlUla 2022 is a collaboration between Desert X and the Royal Commission for AlUla established to advance new cultural dialogue through art.
Serge Attukwei Clottey’s installation.
All photos by Lance Gerber, courtesy of Desert X AlUla 2022.
