Using the loom as her blank canvas, Saoudi Aït Khay creates intricate patterns through gestures of hand-weaving; these rhythmic patterns tell a story of Amazigh cultural history and depict memories of Moroccan and Tunisian landscapes. Across the tapestry Marrakech 2, undulating forms and expansive chromatic passages interact with areas of interruption and variation, suggesting movement, as though the surface were shaped by wind or time. The title serves to distinguish and recognise the piece as a marker of a mental and physical space, often through Amazigh naming as an affirmation of identity. Through this interplay between structure and spontaneity, Saoudi Aït Khay transforms inherited knowledge into an evolving, living practice.

Her early practice of painting on silk shaped her understanding of graphic composition, gesture, and rhythm; elements that now inform her textile works. Each tapestry often begins with traditional dyeing processes using natural materials she sources from her surroundings. Plants are dried, crushed, and simmered to release their pigments: turmeric yields yellow, pomegranate peel warm ochre, tea beige and grey hues, walnut caramel tones, prickly pear cactus flowers deep crimson, and beetroot salmon pink, each colour fixed with aluminium sulphate. As she states, “it’s not me who chooses the colours, they call to me.”