Antenna (White)

2010

Antenna (White), 2010
Neon Tube

150 × 150 × 50 cm

A boy stands on the flat, dusty rooftop of his family’s traditional house in the south west corner of Saudi Arabia. With all his reach he lifts a battered TV antenna up to the evening sky. He moves it slowly across the mountainous horizon, in search of a signal from beyond the nearby border with Yemen, or across the Red Sea towards Sudan. He is searching, like so many of his generation in Saudi, for ideas, for music, for poetry – for a glimpse of a different kind of life.

Ahmed Mater is the boy with the antenna; a young explorer in search of contact with the outside world, reaching out to communicate across the borders that surround him. It is this spirit of creative exploration and curiosity that defines Ahmed’s journey as an artist

“This story says a lot about my life and my art... I catch art from the story of my life, I don’t know any other way. Like many of my generation in Saudi Arabia, I was seeking ideas, music, poetry – a glimpse of a different kind of life. This spirit of creative exploration, curiosity, and reaching out to communicate across the borders surrounding me have defined my journey as an artist.”
Ahmed Mater

Provenance

Through the Spectrum

Athr Gallery, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Grey Borders/Grey Frontiers

Torstrasse 1, Berlin, Germany

We Need to Talk

Al Furisiya Marina & Mall, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

The Future of a Promise: 54th Venice Biennale

Magazzini del Sale, Venice, Italy

Symbolic Cities

Smithsonian’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington DC, USA

Cities of Conviction

Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City, USA

Process

The boy with an antenna became the artist looking beyond the strict confines of his country, catching art from the story of his life. This neon tube antenna becomes an emblem of this creative act of conducting.

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