Cowboy Code

Toy guns and their little red caps were ubiquitous for Saudi youth in the late 20th century. Called ‘Western Gun Caps’, they could be found everywhere across Saudi Arabia. This large-scale wall-based installation takes words from a famous song by Gene Autry, outlining the characteristics and morals of the cowboy.

The timeless character of the vagabonding cowboy is a persona present throughout the youth of many growing up in Saudi Arabia through the 1980s and 90s, seen in imported Western movies – a playful and frivolous character on the outside but with an almost inviolable moral core. The cowboy is the nomad of the Western sands, much like the Bedouin is the nomad of the Eastern sands.