Saudi artist’s solo exhibition explores fast-evolving society, culture

Jeddah: Saudi artist Ahaad Alamoudi’s first solo exhibition, called “Moving Mountains,” is being held at Hayy Jameel and boasts themes that take deep root in the local context.

The opening night recently gathered emerging artists and art lovers and involved a tour led by Alamoudi and curator of Art Jameel Rotana Shaker, which gave an insight into Alamoud’s work over the past eight years.

The exhibition centers on the new Art Jameel commission “Moving Mountains,” a short film that continues Alamoudi’s examination of fast-evolving social and cultural environments.

It focuses on Saudi Arabia’s natural and urban landscapes as sites where attempts to achieve the impossible are infused with humor, absurdity, and hope.

Other art pieces include the latest in Alamoudi’s ongoing video series, in which two talking falcons face away from each other on back-to-back screens, saying “I don’t remember this being here” and “Do you see what I see?”

Another work, “I Was Told Ice Wouldn’t Melt In Heat,” depicts a man in a white thobe who circles a large ice block in the desert for four hours, trying different methods to stop it from melting in the intense heat.

The tour was followed by a conversation between Alamoudi and Shaker, exploring key themes from the exhibition.

Alamoudi, whose work addresses history, ethnography and representation, told Arab News: “(The exhibition) looks at change from different perspectives. The main work is called ‘Moving Mountains,’ which is a piece commissioned by Hayy Jameel.

“It looks at collective power and the individual power to bring about change, whether building something or forgetting something.”

She added that in “Moving Mountains” she explores the natural and urban landscape of Saudi Arabia as a site that is subject to change and open to many new possibilities.

Local and global art experts discussed the Saudi artist’s work and explored the nature of shifting urban and natural landscapes and artistic practices of image-making, among other topics.

The panel discussions featured Saudi-Palestinian artist Ayman Yossri Daydban; Rut Blees Luxemburg, artist and professor of urban aesthetics at the Royal College of Art; Adrian Lahoud, dean of the School of Architecture at the Royal College of Art; and Shaker.

Alamoudi discussed various subjects such as documentation, approaches in understanding the role of the present within an evolving future, notions of past and present, and navigating landscapes in flux.

The exhibition runs until Oct. 26.