Abdullah Al Othman
Abdullah Al Othman is a conceptual artist and a published contemporary poet from Riyadh, where he was born in 1985. In Al Othman’s artistic practice, incipient impulses develop into multimedia works incorporating text, videos, public interventions, and installations. His works often take the form of inquiries into a wide range of elusive concepts or experiences, like the notion of faith, the sound and sensation of wind over desert dunes, or the invisible wounds inflicted through methods of “noise” torture, that are difficult to perceive or understand through straightforward investigations or representations. With thoughtful examinations of marginalised ideas, spaces and existences at the fringes of society, Al Othman retrieves obscured or abandoned narratives and repositions them at the centre of the collective consciousness.
Al-Othman created an intervention in old city in Al-Ula to instill a renewed notion of its remarkable architectural style. Al-Othman covered the entire building with tin foil in a symbolic gesture to its frozen state, making a statement about the absurdity of thinking that the cycle of change could ever be stopped. As the old saying goes change is the only constant thing in life.
photo by Lance Gerber
“With ‘Basher’ meaning greater in arabic and ‘Bashar’ as a homonym meaning people, I wanted to create something that would capture and reflect the thousands of various families, people homes and kitchen tables that these greaters touched. I’m sure a lot of moms out there were wondering where their cheese graters went. Hopefully now those moms can see the story of their families celebrated in a fun and interesting way.” Al-Othman said.
the artist and Desert X AlUla, photo by Lance Gerber
This version of the article was published on Selections Print issue #63