Al Azraq was once a thriving desert oasis, sustained by springs that supported migrating birds, fishing, agriculture, and a community whose livelihoods were closely connected to water. Decades of groundwater extraction transformed the landscape. As the springs disappeared, so did many of the ecological and economic relationships that had sustained life there.

Yet Al Azraq is not simply a landscape of loss. Seasonal rains still carry water through Wadi Rajil, bringing sudden floods and brief eruptions of life. These fleeting transformations reveal both the fragility of the ecosystem and its continuing capacity for renewal.

Imagination of Salvation: Actions on the Land emerged through collaboration with local partners, bringing artistic inquiry into conversation with ecological research and possibilities for regeneration. Working through photography, collage, writing, and temporary interventions in the landscape, I explored how attention to a place—its material conditions, histories, and lived experiences—might open new ways of understanding and imagining its future. Nizar Qabbani's poetry gives expression to the longing for something that may be impossible to recover, but remains possible to imagine.

The project unfolded alongside technical investigations into managed aquifer recharge and the potential revival of salt harvesting as a sustainable livelihood. Rather than treating artistic practice as an illustration of these efforts, I approached it as another way of knowing: one that could hold grief, uncertainty, and possibility together, making space for as yet invisible futures.

[Portfolio]