Fortitude By Sarah Abu Abduallah

Sarah Abu Abdallah also looks to plant existences, drawing on the potency of seeds as a way to understand how culture, identity, and nature overlap. Where Akhavan’s ecological archives speak to regional histories, here the engagement is more personal. Seed movements intimate the dynamics of the histories that form us. Sarah Abu Abdallah is interested in what of our “home” can be carried with us. Though here the loss is threatened by by urbanization. The resin tomato forms of Fortitude (2020) contain heirloom seeds from her town of Qatif, Saudi Arabia. Grown by generations of farmers, the plant has become virtually extinct due to the rampant industrial development of the region.

Reminisced her childhood. In the greenhouse, she presented a special variety of tomato that has now become extinct due to the land reforms in Saudi Arabia.