Literature

I Found My Giving Tree Breathing Its Past Life (You Live Forever), from the Ahmadi series (1 + 2, 2024), emerges from my encounter with the monumental trees of the Ahmadi district in Kuwait—trees that have stood since the 1950s, bearing silent witness to time, labour, and transformation. These trees are not only botanical presences but living archives, rooted in memory and place. Through this work, I sought to revive them, to return breath and eternity to forms that once anchored the landscape.

The painting was created on a long scroll of watercolour paper laid directly on the floor, where my body became fully embedded in the act of making. The tree is formed through the movement, reach, and placement of my body, turning the composition into a physical record—a marker of gesture, weight, and presence. Ink gestures echo the language of calligraphy, while mica ink introduces a subtle luminosity, allowing the surface to shimmer and breathe.

Crowning the tree are two heads, positioned as guardians—angelic forms that anchor the tree beyond time. They serve as protectors, ensuring the tree’s continuity, honouring it as an eternal being that lives on through ritual, movement, and devotion.