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DUBAI: “My practice is mainly about experimenting with archiving narratives, especially now, given how quickly things are changing in ��������,” Riyadh-based conceptual artist and curator Meshal Al-Obaidallah tells Arab News. “I use cultural artifacts — they could be physical or digital — to document current issues and affairs in the country.” 

The initial inspiration for this practice came when Al-Obaidallah visited the Kingdom in 2018 from the US, where he was living at the time.  

“I literally had culture shock,” he says. “The day after I arrived there was a big live concert for Formula E. Things had changed so quickly.” 

That culture shock, he explains, has become a “constant state” for him. He repeats what he has told Arab News in previous interviews: That his work, rather than focusing on collective memory, explores “collective amnesia; what’s being forgotten in society.”  

He continues: “People forget how things used to be back in, say, 2016; not even a decade ago. My aim is to archive and document as acts of resilience and memory.” 

If this makes Al-Obaidallah’s work sound like an exercise in nostalgia, it isn’t.  

“There is some sort of nostalgia to it,” he admits, “but it’s not that cliché where you just focus on the past for the sake of focusing on the past. I see it more as, like, a civic duty to remember how we used to be, so that we avoid past mistakes.” 

His current, ongoing, project “D.I.Y. (Do It, Yousef),” for which Al-Obaidallah has received a grant from the Culture Resource (Al-Mawred Al-Thaqafy), incorporates all of the above, as well as the other most-significant factor in Al-Obaidallah’s practice: collaboration.  

The premise is both simple and layered. Essentially, it’s Al-Obaidallah and Riyadh-based Indian artist — and “man of many trades” — Joseph Vadakkumchery (the “Yousef” of the project’s title) renovating and restoring a one-story property built at the turn of the century in the heart of Riyadh that belongs to Al-Obaidallah’s family and had stood unused for more than a decade. But it has grown into something much more than that. 

Vadakkumchery has worked for Al-Obaidallah’s family for around 15 years as a driver, gardener, handyman, and “expediter of government paperwork.” Now, since part of the project was shown at Art Week Riyadh earlier this year, he’s also an artist. And Al-Obaidallah stresses that they are equal artistic partners in the project (for which he has assumed the name Meshal the Contractor).  

The idea was sparked by the visit of a friend — the Dubai-based cultural entrepreneur Rami Farook — to Riyadh in 2021. He happened to be staying in one of several hotels that now overlook the property.  

“It looks kind of out of place because the entire neighborhood is, like, high-rise hotels, then there’s this abandoned building,” says Al-Obaidallah. “I said to him, ‘Oh, I have access to that property. You want to check it out?’ And Rami got excited. So we went inside and it really was inspiring; kind of like a time capsule. You forget how this neighborhood used to be and this building gives you a glimpse into the past, before all the changes.” 

There was no long-term plan at the start. “The goal was just to document restoring this building,” Al-Obaidallah says. “I approached Joseph and we checked the property out to see, like, could we fix the water? The door? The electricity? We started groundwork on December 10, 2021.” 

Al-Obaidallah intermittently posted Instagram stories of the work — “the highlights; coming up with creative solutions for how to fix up the building,” he explains. “The only people fixing it up were me and Joseph, so we had to improvise to fix the piping, the plumbing, the electricity, and all these different aspects.” 

What happened next took him somewhat by surprise: Some of his Instagram followers started asking for more details and how they could get involved.  

“They didn’t even know me that well,” he says. “They just wanted to participate. Like, during Art Week Riyadh, one of my photographer friends from Jeddah was visiting for another project he’s doing. He was staying in another hotel close to the property, and he took some nice video footage from his balcony. And I’m working with a web developer in Amman who made a website for Joseph. Different creative practitioners from around the Arab world are pitching in with what they can.” 

A few people came and visited the building, and they felt the same inspiration as Al-Obaidallah. 

“When people actually come and see this space, I think they fall in love with the project because you feel that there’s a history to it; it’s not something that’s being crafted or fake. And when you walk in, you can sense that. It’s not something being made up. So it became, like, this community project.” 

At Art Week Riyadh, two photographs of the project were displayed. Both were acquired, and the money will help fund further work on the building. The upcoming third phase will also see Al-Obaidallah reach out beyond those “kind of within our social circle” to involve more of the public.  

“What I want to do is put out flyers in the neighborhood and other areas to get people I don’t know — and don’t know me at all — to be involved,” he says. That might involve donating furniture or appliances, for example, though he stresses that he’s not necessarily looking for period pieces.  

“It doesn’t need to have appliances and furniture from a specific decade. It depends on what people have. If someone gives me an old thing, that’s fine, but the whole ethos behind the project is this low-budget DIY thing. It’s just about giving what’s available and being kind of modest and easygoing.” 

This involvement of the wider community is central to Al-Obaidallah’s and Vadakkumchery’s goals. 

“I really do feel that art is social. And, like I said in the beginning, my practice is about tackling collective amnesia. So it’s kind of important to have a collective effort to combat this phenomena,” Al-Obaidallah says. “That’s really the crux. We have to remember together.”