A calling from the Moon
Multi media Installation, dimension variable, 2023
Produced during Masaha residency, Misk art institute, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
What did Neil Armstrong hear when he first stepped foot on the moon? Did the lunar landscape look extremely familiar to him?
Working with the idea of universality, this project diffuses the importance of one objective truth, and engages in the relationship between two landscapes - the moon and the desert. By creating a setting of para fiction, the two landscapes are confused.
The work is an act of material exchange and cyclic translation between reality and fiction. The central premise is inspired by a story that suggests that Armstrong heard the Islamic call to prayer on the moon. This narrative prompted the artist to deconstruct the moon landing by drawing comparisons between the lunar and the desert landscape respectively. The use of scientific language in this project is an attempt to assert the reliability of the claim that the two landscapes share similarities.
Using technical drawings that employ the language of science and archaeology, the artist studied the topology of the two landscapes in relation to one another, and as one another. The sculptures are abstractions of lab equipment, suspended between the found and the produced. Through the presentation of found material, photographic investigation and exploration of the interconnectivity between seemingly disparate landscapes, the artist blurs the lines between reality and fiction.