Originally part of a school desk, each wooden board in Jadal was once in a secondary school in Makkah. Unused for over 25 years, they form a mosaic of collective Saudi memory, life almost imperceptibly present in the faded scratching and notes on the wooden boards. Here, language is reduced to a mark making, none of the desks showing any signs of human, animal or manmade forms. The artist uses this philosophical representation of a concept, here the sustainability of traces, to invoke collective memory and to celebrate content as opposed to form. Exhibited in the same state as when first found, their condition reveals their identity, as old images might revive the memory of those to who they once belonged.

The artist looks to the viewer to question why the representation of form is missing from the remnant of these children’s daydreams and what social conditioning triggered this collective behavior. The work provokes a dialogue on shared Saudi memory, questioning the longer lasting effects of these heedlessly disappearing traces within the country’s rapidly changing landscape.

Originally part of a school desk, each wooden board in Jadal was once in a secondary school in Makkah. Unused for over 25 years, they form a mosaic of collective Saudi memory, life almost imperceptibly present in the faded scratching and notes on the wooden boards. Here, language is reduced to a mark making, none of the desks showing any signs of human, animal or manmade forms. The artist uses this philosophical representation of a concept, here the sustainability of traces, to invoke collective memory and to celebrate content as opposed to form. Exhibited in the same state as when first found, their condition reveals their identity, as old images might revive the memory of those to who they once belonged.

The artist looks to the viewer to question why the representation of form is missing from the remnant of these children’s daydreams and what social conditioning triggered this collective behavior. The work provokes a dialogue on shared Saudi memory, questioning the longer lasting effects of these heedlessly disappearing traces within the country’s rapidly changing landscape.

Nasser Al-Salem’s work City Nomads is a movingly nostalgic piece that is a drastic departure from the artist’s previous calligraphic work. The subject, one that is close to his heart, is of the nomadic traditions that are forcibly disappearing by the ever-expanding cities and fast-paced modernization. The work comprises of hanging traditional tent flaps (that made-up the entrances of tents) on a number of scaffolds.  Each ten-flap is marked with calligraphic verses and indications of modern-day ”tagging” that geo-records their location. The scaffolds are assembled in a way that force the viewer to explore and discover the tent-flaps within the skeletal structure. The assembly of tent-flaps, a traditional material for constructing the homes of Nomads, lay in stark contrast to the use of scaffolds, a modern day means for constructing buildings. Nasser’s hollow structure alludes to the flimsy and unstable, and appears to both question and highlight the foundation in which culture and tradition will continue to exist or disappear.

Tent-making was in fact the artist’s family’s main trade for several generations.  The artist has many fond memories of growing up in their Mecca shop, which was eventually closed down as plastic constructions replaced tents as shelters for Hajj pilgrims. 

Nomads, by definition, leave no trace to mark their presence when they move to another location. This means that they actually have no tangible heritage.  If their way of life disappears, there will be nothing but their oral traditions to prove they ever existed.