As part of Art Week Riyadh’s “JAX Open Studios” programme, we sat down in conversation with artist AlJohara Saud Al Saud to explore the layers—both literal and symbolic—of her latest work. What began with raw wool taken directly from the abattoir unfolds into a reflection on memory, endurance, and the quiet strength of women’s inherited knowledge.
In Conversation With AlJohara Saud Al Saud
In her latest work, artist AlJohara Saud Al Saud transforms raw sheep’s wool—sourced straight from the abattoir—into a textured meditation on memory, endurance, and the invisible labour of women. Speaking candidly about her process, AlJohara describes how the project became a tribute not just to craft, but to the generational wisdom woven into every strand. “The wool still smelled like the slaughterhouse. We tried washing it, but it disintegrated. I learnt to clean it with ash and salt—an old method passed down through women.” Her installation, dyed with natural pigments and suspended like a constellation, becomes a quiet rebellion against amnesia. For AlJohara, wool is not merely a material but a metaphor—linking past and present, sky and soil, women and their worlds.
She speaks often of her mother, whom she calls “a gathering force”, and of the women who held families together, especially during times of loss. “We say in our community: the mother holds everything. And my mother, may she rest in peace, taught us that. Her words still guide me.” AlJohara challenges superficial narratives of liberation. “Freedom isn’t just about independence, it’s about knowing where you come from. Feminism isn’t one thing. It’s survival, community, presence.”
Through wool, memory, and inherited know-how, her work resists the erasure of women’s stories. “From the bottom of the desert to the sky, this is where our dreams live.”