Agua Pesada / Alma’ Althaqil. 2023
Acrylic paint, clay, concrete block, sand, cement, plaster, plastic and metal mesh
Credit: Daniel H. Rey (word bank and poem)
Commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation

Agua Pesada / Alma’ Althaqil [heavy water] (2023) is composed of 160 replicas of aludeles inscribed with poetry inspired by the etymological, economic and cultural connections between the Spanish and Arabic word for mercury [azogue]. The title references one of the many synonyms for mercury used by medieval Arabic alchemists. The furnaces are modelled after the Hornos de Bustamante of the Almaden mines in Spain, a monumental aludele used to roast cinnabar ore and process quicksilver. Also referred to as the Hermetic Vase, the Philosopher’s Egg and the Vase of the Philosophy, the aludele is a bottomless-pot furnace used in alchemy for sublimation.

From ‘Mineral Intensive’. 2022
Coloured pencil
Commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation

The ‘Mineral Intensive’ (2022) series features six drawings representing minerals included in the World Bank’s 2020 report, Minerals for Climate Action: The Mineral Intensity of the Clean Energy Transition. This analysis suggests that the extraction of minerals could massively increase by 500 per cent by 2050 in order to meet the growing demand for clean energy technologies. ‘Mineral Intensive’ illustrates the multiple scenes of labour, environmental extraction and energy conversion processes required to meet the rising need for energy transition.

Fuel to Fire. 2023
HD video, 7:25 minutes
Commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation

The single-channel video Fuel to Fire (2023) transports the viewer to a place where gold is being paid back to a body of water through pagamento [payment]. This Indigenous ceremony was performed to protect and conserve the Paramo de Santurbán, a mooreland ecosystem in the high mountains of northwest Colombia that is home to substantial and highly sought-after gold deposits. The pagamento is a ritual that keeps the life cycles on earth in harmony. When accumulation [of material things] happens, sickness arrives; it thus becomes imperative to give back by letting go of something that is precious, to restore balance.

(Texts at the exhibition. © Sharjah Art Foundation)

Venue: Calligrapher Studios