Abdullah Al Saadi:  خرج ولم يعد / Sometimes You Have to Go a Long Way to Come back a Short Distance

Overview

خرج ولم يعد / Sometimes You Have To Go a Long Way to Come Back A Short Distance is a monograph on the pioneering conceptual artist Abdullah Al Saadi, whose prolific body of work encompasses painting, drawing, scrollwork, found-object sculpture, performance, land art, assemblages and installations. This volume celebrates movement and travel as creative methodologies, ritual practices and a way of life for Al Saadi, tracing the reciprocal imprint of the artist on the landscape and the landscape on the artist. From his seasonal migrations and treks through the mountains of the eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula to excursions as far afield as Brazil, Japan and Antarctica, the book tracks Al Saadi’s peripatetic impulse across a range of overlapping contexts, time-space constellations and bodies of work. Alongside previously unpublished extracts from his sketch books, artist books, daily journals, travel diaries and personal archives, it presents critical and scholarly reflections on his work as well as an interview with the artist and a translated essay about his practice. Positioning Al Saadi as a non-canonical, outsider artist of singular importance, this monograph explores the parallels between his practice and intergenerational rock and boulder art from the Arabian Peninsula. The result of Al Saadi’s unique relationship to Sharjah and longstanding collaboration with the Sharjah Art Foundation, it reflects on the affinities between his artistic approach and intergenerational wisdom as well as land-based practices of the region.

With contributions from
Hoor Al Qasimi, Ahmad Makia (eds.)
Meitha Al Mazrooei, Ahmed Rashid Thani