Saudi artist Mohammad Alfaraj, who hails from Al-Ahsa, the largest desert oasis in the world, is currently captivating audiences at the Art Basel Paris international art fair. This talented individual is the grandson and son of date farmers, drawing inspiration from his agricultural roots. Alfaraj’s work, unveiled for the first time as part of the “Orbis Tertius” exhibition, highlights the results of his residency at the AlUla Artist Residency in 2021. The event, which commenced on October 18, is being held at the Grand Palais, a newly renovated venue in Paris.
Alfaraj describes his artistic identity as that of “an artist and a poet — a poet of visuals.” He elaborated, saying, “I was talking with one of the other AlUla Residency artists about this, and we agreed that both of us try to encapsulate poems and poetry into objects, poems that you can hold, and touch and feel, and smell.”
His journey into the art world has been anything but conventional. Initially, Alfaraj pursued a degree in Applied Mechanical Engineering at King Fahad University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran. Reflecting on his academic experience, he shares, “When I began my studies in 2011, there wasn’t much focus on filmmaking or photography in Saudi, and they were what interested me. But it was beautiful, because understanding how things work and how to build them is a relevant subject for a curious mind. One of my favorite courses was Mechanics of Materials. I learned that everything is alive; even inanimate objects emit a vibration, an energy. I wanted to complete my degree, but also to pursue my career as an artist.”
His upbringing on a farm has significantly influenced his artistic expression. “Growing up on a farm, it’s deeply ingrained to reuse everything we find around us,” he explains. “We don’t call it ecology; we call it resources; there is no waste, no excess, nothing gets thrown away. A bird builds its nest from the things it finds lying around, bits of straw, bits of plastic. I call that ‘honestly built.’”
One of his featured installations at Art Basel is titled “The Date Fruit of Knowledge,” a stop-motion film narrated against the backdrop of AlUla’s palm groves. Alfaraj describes the film’s narrative, focusing on a nightingale’s insatiable quest for knowledge, stating, “It’s the story of a little nightingale who’s trying to get all the knowledge of the world. He’s impatient; he wants everything immediately. Someone tells him the legend, ‘Each palm tree produces one date that holds all the knowledge of the world.’ So he finds a palm tree and eats every single date that it produces to hit that one date. He becomes obsessed; he wants to stop, but he cannot, he’s driven by that greed for knowledge.”
He continues, “Finally — finally — he finds the date! And he knows everything, what is, what was, what will be. The problem is, when he knows everything, he knows everything — the good things he cannot enjoy, and the horrific things he cannot change — so this blessing becomes a curse. So the film is about this idea of getting things slowly, with time, and really experiencing the journey of life rather than instantly reaching your destination.” This tale draws inspiration from Qur’anic stories, religious parables, and global mythologies, making it universally relatable. Alfaraj emphasizes, “The ‘nightingale’ in the film is made out of dates, and he eats so many dates he almost dies. What I want to say by this is that our destruction could be by our own hands, but our salvation could be by our own hands too.”
The film’s display at Art Basel is accompanied by Alfaraj’s illustrations, with palm fronds arranged to resemble bird wings.
He reveals, “The paper (for the illustrations) is made from waste palm, the ink is also made from palm leaves, so the whole work is made from things that are normally discarded.”
Still residing in Al-Ahsa, Alfaraj continues to find inspiration in his homeland, where he has built a simple home on his family’s farm, complete with a garden filled with date palms and other trees. He mentions, “It has a garden with date palms, mulberry trees, fig and lemon trees. I have a couple of chickens too, now.”
As he prepares for his upcoming exhibition in Dubai, Alfaraj’s artistic philosophy is evident in his self-described identity as an “anti-SS” artist. “It’s a play on words, which I always like. It means I am anti-style and anti-scale, because style and scale do not drive the work; they are just the façade. The driver of the work should be the heart and the soul — and modesty too, humility.”
Among his contributions to Art Basel, the piece “From What Bone Will We Grow Back On the First Day of Eternity?” from the “Last Words of a Tree” series stands out. He notes, “I’ve used a certain part of a palm tree to make a sculpture that looks like bones, or a fossil, of a creature emerging from the earth.” This artwork reflects Alfaraj’s hope amidst adversity: “I try to believe that with so much sacrifice going on, something great will happen, and hopefully, human glory will emerge; the evil and prejudices eradicated. So, I hope this work serves as an acknowledgment of everything that’s happening, but also contains a certain hope.”
