Mohamed Amine Hamouda has been developing a body of work closely linked to the Gabès oasis in the Tunisian south, the sole maritime oasis in the Mediterranean. Over the years, he has reflected on the current state of degradation of this ecosystem, developing a range of materials and a vocabulary extracted directly from the fibre. From this “brut” plant fibre, the artist constructs his medium and frame. Engaging in a manual process par excellence, he utilizes the vegetal scraps or waste (from farmers or artisans) and subjects them to an alchemical approach in order to extract the potential aesthetic qualities of his material. In his laboratory-studio, the material undergoes initial maceration and fermentation, manual carding and scraping, and ultimately blending, until the softer paste is fixed into a compact felt-fibre surface—a technique he discovered purely through experimentation and employs in the production of paper for the last few years. With a palpable attachment to his heritage, the idea of retrieving and recycling as artistic and ecological interventions from the vicinity of his own environment is at the heart of this series.

In his Oasis Maps series, Hamouda applies his powdered natural pigments as fundamental dyes directly onto his medium, such as henna, pomegranate peels, and madder—which is derived from Rubia tinctorum and was historically used for staining purposes by the Phoenicians, the Greeks and the Carthaginians.[1] Drawing inspiration from the oasian geometric arrangement, these artworks represent an abstract interpretation of a perennial topography of Trayed, a parallel system of verdant furrows, and Seguias, the irrigation distribution system, which constitute the “the lines of force of the oasis space”.[2] According to the artist, everything int the oasis flora is connected with a Seguia. And so it is with the combination of each form and colour, colliding in a graphically rendered, harmonious unity. The mentally-memorized compartmentalization becomes incorporeal; only the expression of its infinity remains. The analysis of cartographic data, his own syntax, traces a subliminal proposition of internalized space, breathed through a full-field viewing. The artist works with the idea of metamorphosis; his variegated patterns do not emulate strict accuracy but instead anchor a novel iconography across space and time.

[1] Jesús Martín-Gil, et al. Analysis of a Celtiberian Protective Paste and Its Possible Use by Arevaci Warriors. Vol. 5, no. 1, 1 Jan. 2007, p. 69.

[2] “Les oasis présahariennes dans l'Antiquité : partage de l'eau et division du temps)”, p. 166.