Wadi Hanifah Embroidery Landscape

The series of embroidery appliqué canvases titled ‘Wadi Hanifah Embroidery Landscape’ depicts plant species endemic to the Wadi Hanifah, a desert valley west of the city of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.

During a research trip to Saudia Arabaia, commissioned by the 2024 Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale, Lucy Orta met with botanists from the National Centre for Vegetation Cover Development and Combatting Desertification (NVCV) to learn more about the unique properties of vegetation that survives in extreme temperature and drought conditions. In an ongoing collaboration, she translated the research into more than one-hundred meticulous line drawings of flowers, shrubs and trees endemic to Saudi Arabia.

To create ‘Wadi Hanifah Embroidery Landscape’ the drawings are enlarged into pattern templates 70 x 70 cm each. Lucy has silk-satin digitally printed to achieve the depth of colour and texture of each species; the details of the species are then cut into silk-satin, motifs are assembled together and embroidered onto coloured canvas using coloured threads to add further detail.

Each silk motif is associated with geometric forms derived from Al Sadu, weaving traditionally practised by Bedouin women. Al Sadu is a manifestation of the material, spatial and symbolic culture of nomadic dwelling, and the forms reveal the embedded knowledge of astronomy and the environment. Triangles and zigzag motifs, and clusters of lozenges may reference the Pleiades navigational star cluster, fertile grassland, or desert plants assuring the survival of the tribe.

With expanding urbanisation and the loss of traditional practices, 'Wadi Hanifah Embroidery Landscape' presents a poetic language of resilience and adaptation to the effects of climate change through figurative and abstract representation of the desert.

• https://www.studio-orta.com/en/artwork/9...
• https://britishtextilebiennial.co.uk/eve...
• https://destinationksa.com/en/lucy-and-j...