During a visit to the Empty Quarter desert, in the southern end of the Arabian peninsula, the artist encountered a tall, bright green plant known as the Calotropis Procera. The plant, which is also referred to by other names such as the Jinn Tree or the Apple of Sodom, secretes a toxic milky sap when cut that is reputed to cause blindness. Throughout history, human interaction with the natural world has yielded both pain and discovery, from nourishment to poison. Her sculpture explores the intertwined facts and myths shaping the understanding of nature. Furthermore, as the frightening dripping form indicates, Al Qadiri’s sculpture stands as a memorial to the blind condition, not only in a physical sense but also a psychological one, in which people refuse to believe the reality of images they are confronted with within the confines of the post-truth world we inhabit today.
Commissioned by Noor Riyadh
During a visit to the Empty Quarter desert, in the southern end of the Arabian peninsula, the artist encountered a tall, bright green plant known as the Calotropis Procera. The plant, which is also referred to by other names such as the Jinn Tree or the Apple of Sodom, secretes a toxic milky sap when cut that is reputed to cause blindness. Throughout history, human interaction with the natural world has yielded both pain and discovery, from nourishment to poison. Her sculpture explores the intertwined facts and myths shaping the understanding of nature. Furthermore, as the frightening dripping form indicates, Al Qadiri’s sculpture stands as a memorial to the blind condition, not only in a physical sense but also a psychological one, in which people refuse to believe the reality of images they are confronted with within the confines of the post-truth world we inhabit today.
Commissioned by Noor Riyadh