The Promise of Life, 2022
M'hammed KilitoCyanotype print on linen
Collection of 4
290 × 135 cm
Collection of Misk Art Institute, Riyadh
'The Promise of Life' is a fabric installation that explores the paradoxes between the optical phenomenon of the mirage and the preservation of our natural environment.
Using photogram technique on cyanotype, the artist displays vegetation gestures of the desert oasis of Saudi Arabia to recreate the illusion of the desert and a reproduction of the oasis. Each fabric piece represents a vegetation stratum existing in the oasis that allows the creation of an environment conducive to the development of crops: the tree layer, the shrub layer, and the herbaceous layer. Like a mirage, the viewer is confronted with reality and illusion through the visions of palm trees, vines, plants, and herbs collected from the traditional oasis reflected on linen. The Prussian blue hues symbolically capture the sky and vegetation, insinuating that our natural environment can become a mirage if we do not preserve it.