This article appeared in Being Muhannad Shono Issue #70 which delves into the world of Saudi artist Muhannad Shono, exploring his creative journey, artistic process, and global impact. Through visuals and an in-depth interview, it highlights Shono’s works that connect personal memory with universal themes. The issue traces his evolution from early creations to monumental installations, revealing a progression driven by curiosity and innovation. This issue celebrates Shono’s global success and his curatorial role in the 2025 Islamic Arts Biennale.
Issue #70 ‘Being Muhannad Shono’
The Ground Day Breaks, 2024
This solo exhibition features black sand, which is reclaimed sand from a foundry process. Foundries use black sand for casting metal objects for various industries. The black sand I used is from Saudi Arabia, but it originally starts as pink desert sand. In Saudi, our sand isn’t suitable for construction because it’s wind-formed and too fine to interlock or hold structure. We actually import sand for construction from places like Australia and Spain, where water-formed sand grains are larger and more irregular, allowing them to interlock.
In this body of work, I explore the idea of the earth no longer wanting to offer up eternal forms—it resists permanence, it resists giving shape to narratives, icons, and structures that seek to last forever. The sand grain doesn’t want to be formalised into blocks; it wants to return to the limitless potential of a single grain.
This malleability is key. The sand starts off pink but turns black in the oven as the resin that coats it burns. This process results in “reclaimed sand”, which can be reused multiple times.
The exhibition begins with a formal block of sand, which is broken onto carbon paper. Beneath the carbon paper is another sheet, creating an instantaneous imprint—a new landscape born from the act of breaking the block. This symbolises the toppling of rigid forms, allowing for the emergence of more organic, dynamic landscapes.
One installation within this series involves dot drawing with carbon and paper. I relied on memory and imagination to recall where the last grain of sand sat, while also envisioning the new organic forms that could arise. The resulting works, Night Dew and Seedlings, are in conversation with one another.
Another piece, What Remains, represents acts of restoration. After breaking the sand, I sweep the remnants back together to create momentary sculptural interventions, trying to reconstruct what once was. In From The Land, an organic harvest emerges from the act of breaking. The grain of sand is buried within itself, then irrigated with gum Arabic, and over many layers, it extrudes new forms. This process reflects the burial and rebirth of the earth, drawing on the concept of harvest emerging from burial.
How fragile is the installation? Is it breakable? Do you move it somewhere else?
The second room of the solo features the major installation, which is like a fountain of youth. But here, the grain doesn’t want to become iconic or monumental. There are 2,000 hand-finished pieces. We cast irrigation pipes inside a block of sand, then broke the block, releasing these pieces. Each one was hand-finished and carefully placed on a bed of sand to form the installation.
This fountain of youth doesn’t offer water; instead, it represents the flow of the grain—moving from a rigid, formal block back to its essence, returning to the infinite potential of a single grain.
For his solo exhibition The Ground Day Breaks curated by Nat Muller, Muhannad Shono uses reclaimed black foundry sand as the primary material, exploring its duality as both a source of form and its refusal to be confined. Foundry sand, used in industrial processes until it becomes depleted, represents an agent of transformation in Shono’s hands. The exhibition is both poetic and topical, addressing global ecological uncertainties, regional political turmoil, and the rapid social changes in Saudi Arabia.
The central work, The Ground Day Breaks, features 2,000 handcrafted sculptures arranged in a radial pattern, creating a two-way vortex that defies natural laws. This piece, like the rest of the exhibition, captures the intersection of chaos and control, with every grain of sand embodying infinite potential for change and renewal.
Shono’s material practice is a speculative one, using sand to represent movement, fluidity, and transformation. The works A Promise of Breaking and Night Dew further explore the theme of impermanence. In A Promise of Breaking, carbon transfers capture the moment of dissolution, mapping the topography of destruction. Night Dew presents stippled lightboxes, where the grain of sand exists between night and dawn, symbolising latent possibility.
Shono also draws on mythological motifs, notably the figure of Al-Khidr, in From the Land, where sculptures made from sand and resin evoke healing and regeneration. Meanwhile, Folding Grounds presents large strips of coagulated sand suspended like fabric, emphasizing the material’s pliability.
Ultimately, Shono’s exhibition delves into the infinite possibilities contained within a single grain of sand, presenting it as an agent of transformation and a metaphor for the broader cycles of life, destruction, and renewal.
