Ahmed Mater
‘100 Found Objects’
The Saudi-backed exhibition “A Necessary Fiction: Maps, Art, and Models of Our World” is currently being staged alongside the 61st Venice Biennale in the Italian city’s 13th-century Abbazia di San Gregorio. There are 78 works in the exhibition, with 29 contemporary artists contributing, nine of whom are from Saudi Arabia, including Mater, one of the Kingdom’s most influential contemporary artists, who contributes this 2015 work that, like many of his other pieces, is inspired by Makkah. It features objects found by the artist within the vicinity of the Kaaba over the course of several years. “Each artefact connects to memories, ideas, symbols, and histories, and those embedded meanings that interest the artist,” material from the exhibition states. “(This) diagrammatic pink map … organizes these objects into a spatial and conceptual system. Unlike conventional topographic representations, this map functions as an archival structure, positioning objects as nodes within a network of historical, spiritual, and affective relations.
In “A Necessary Fiction,” Mater’s map is presented alongside ancient cartographies that placed “sacred cities like Makkah and Jerusalem” at their center. But “100 Found Objects,” the material suggests, “extends cartographic practice beyond the physical realm” and “perfectly illustrates how cartographic structures can be utilized to negotiate memory, meaning, and beliefs.”
Sarah Abu Abdallah
‘Following the Lines’
Abu Abdallah works across several mediums, including performance and video. Her large-scale paintings, such as this piece from 2022, “can be seen as mapping the emotional and mental landscapes explored in her films.” “Following the Lines” consists of isolated collaged photos and drawings — which include birds, watches, bananas, cigarettes, a women with her arms raised, technical diagrams, and more — connected by “intricate webs of hand-drawn lines” on a background that features clouds and a moon, “creating a celestial atmosphere.” In the lower right corner, a white “landmass” is marked with a map of the Arabian peninsula. “Deciphering these interconnected icons involves the white hand-drawn Arabic lettering and other collaged text fragments, some of which reference mental well-being or insects that sting and bite, adding a sense of tension and unease to this delicate matrix.”
Nasser Al-Salem
‘Each Time a Star Goes Astray’
This aluminum-and-stainless steel sculptural work was specially commissioned for this exhibition. In it, Al-Salem “transforms Arabic calligraphy into a spatial form that evokes astronomical imagery.” The work “takes the form of reconstructed Arabic letters expanded into a geometric body that appears to oscillate between material weight and visual lightness.” Visitors shouldn’t expect to be able to read the words clearly, however. “Letters overlap and curve into one another, forming a continuous metallic trajectory with no clear beginning or end that evokes a perpetual rotation through space.” The work is inspired by a particular verse in “The Bedouins,” a poem by the Sudanese writer Mohamed Abdelbari, which reads: “Whenever a star strays from its orbit/It comes seeking their footsteps to guide it.” That text “disrupts the traditional relationship between the Bedouins and the stars. Instead of guiding human movement through the desert, the stars become disoriented and turn to the Bedouins’ paths for direction. Al-Salem engages the verse to challenge conventional perceptions of the bond between humans and the heavens. Once symbols of guidance, the stars become disoriented travelers. This reversal reveals a collective loss of ancestral knowledge and a shared state of dislocation, where both humanity and the cosmos search for orientation.”
Basmah Felemban
‘Voyage 01’
The first of a series of plywood prints in which Felemban uses AI to “create new images inspired by cultural narratives and familiar landscapes.” In the upper half of the print, trees, fields, and migrating birds “creating an idyllic landscape.” In the lower half, we see “clustered forms that evoke crowds, pilgrims, and cosmic debris.” The work “guides the viewer through a landscape where history, regional geography, and algorithmic imagination converge. This interplay between different planes of existence echoes the logic of historic mapmaking, where empirical observation, mythical creatures, and systems of belief coexisted without contradiction.”
Filwa Nazer
‘Topoanalysis Untitled 11’
In her “Topoanalysis” series, the Jeddah-based multimedia artist “systematically studies the psychology of intimate spaces, such as houses, attics, and corners. These spaces often play a formative role in our lives, becoming repositories for memories, dreams, and feelings.” Nazer originally trained as a fashion designer in Milan, and that background is apparent in her use of textiles, sewing, and pattern-making in these works, which are maps of emotion, rather than physical spaces. “Nazer begins by constructing delicate textile compositions that layer architectural plans of her own house with technical patterns derived from her personal garments. These designs sometimes reference bodily parts, stitched and sewn together to create an overall sense of spatiality and abstract topographies. By exploring the tension between the inside and outside, the physicality of the body and space, and the emotional experience they carry, Nazer evokes the complexities of humans’ interaction with their surroundings.”
