Ayman Zedani's sonic installation lands Abu Dhabi stage

Ayman Zedani, a Riyadh-based artist, has found a commercial and institutional platform for one of his most ambitious works. His 2021 sonic installation “Between Desert Seas” is now on show at Abu Dhabi’s 421 Arts Campus as part of the group exhibition “Archipelago of Whispers,” which runs until Jan. 10.

The exhibition, curated by Deniz Kirkali and Elham Puriya Mehr, brings together regional and international practitioners whose work the show frames around “alternative infrastructures for knowledge-making.” The lineup includes Aliaskar Abarkas, Ruba Al-Sweel, Farah Al Qasimi, Gizem Karakaş, Yen Chun Lin and Omar Mismar. For the artists involved, inclusion in a curated institutional show of this kind represents visibility within the Gulf’s growing cultural market, where venues such as 421 Arts Campus function as key nodes connecting creators with audiences, collectors and patrons.

Zedani’s piece takes as its subject an isolated community of whales in the Arabian Gulf. The installation features recordings of the critically endangered Arabian Sea humpback whale, a subpopulation that does not undertake seasonal migration. The artist says the work engages the show’s theme by “challenging how we record history and asking visitors to tune into voices that usually get drowned out.”

That framing carries an implicit argument about value: what markets and institutions choose to archive, and what falls outside the ledger. “The subpopulation … has lived isolated in these warm waters for tens of thousands of years. Because they don’t migrate, they’re effectively living archives of the region’s marine history,” Zedani told Arab News. Scientific research lends weight to that claim. According to WWF Pakistan, studies suggest the whale community has remained separate from other humpback whale populations for 70,000 years.

The multilayered installation itself combines physical and sonic materials. It features benches, acoustic panels and a central mound of salt that reminds viewers of the harmful effects of human activity. On his website, Zedani describes the work as “an immersive sonic experience of different elements gathered and made through the research process. Between factual and fictional, these elements have been weaved together to create a tapestry of stories highlighting the Arabian Sea humpback whale … In their solitude, they developed their own language, their own song, their own culture.”

Meanwhile, the salt component ties the artwork to industrial activity in the region, giving the piece an economic dimension as well as an ecological one. “Shaped like local grave markers, the salt blocks reflect both the brine waste from desalination plants and the raw mineral archive left behind when water evaporates,” Zedani explained. Desalination, a cornerstone industry supporting the Gulf’s water supply, leaves behind the brine that the artist transforms into material, an act that turns an industrial byproduct into an exhibit and, in effect, a record of the costs of the region’s development model.

The piece is indicative of Zedani’s repertoire as a whole. He studied biomedical science at university before becoming a full-time artist five years ago, and has since focused on the region’s landscapes as a source of inspiration. That shift from laboratory to studio has positioned him within a cohort of Gulf-based artists whose research-driven practice appeals to institutions seeking work grounded in regional environmental and historical subject matter.

For Zedani, the whales offer a way of rethinking whose history counts. “By centering the whales and their acoustic environment, I wanted to move away from that purely human-centric view,” he said. “Understanding the history of this place means listening to all its inhabitants, especially the marine life that has shaped these waters.”

“Archipelago of Whispers” continues at 421 Arts Campus in Abu Dhabi until Jan. 10, leaving visitors a few more weeks to tune in to voices that, as the artist argues, usually go unheard.