Zahraa Tariq Alkahtani

Master of Contemporary Art

Profoundly inspired by the ancient Islamic Abrahamic stories of human life being created from earthly matter, my work embraces the understanding that all matter is connected. Thus, to reunite myself with the elemental substances of the world, I use the tangible materials of dust, wet earth, clay and pottery to invoke the intangible, spiritual human ‘soul’. Different colours and textures of sand, clay and soil found in varying geographical formations are used as metaphors for the diversity of ethnicities, genders, and cultures found among humans. These abiotic geological materials invite the viewer to relationally connect with a range of histories and subjective understandings of the contradictory ways of seeing and knowing that are all connected through universal origins.