Moath AlOfi

Thad (The Collection) 2019

‘Thad’ is a photograph and video archive of years of research by the artist in his quest for defining the soul of the desert through self-exploration. The fictive name of Thad speaks for the curious and investigative spirit of AlOfi, intensified after surviving a tragic car accident, leaving him immobile for several months. The project comes as his rebirth and reconnection with what he was about to leave behind.

The images show fragments of ancient civilizations mixed with modern artifacts within a 100km radius of deserted land in the region of Madian. By closing the time gap between the ancient and modern occupying the same space, AlOfi unfolds humanity’s history as an archeological dig.

Throughout this body of work, AlOfi is concerned with the origins of humankind and its transformation through its natural context. The interchange between the natural and human forces and the often-destructive tension that erupts between the two is made evident by the colliding juxtaposed entities, presented to the viewer as an accessible history requiring our further attention.

Moath AlOfi (Madina, Saudi Arabia, 1984) is an artist, researcher, and explorer. He is the Founder of artistic studio Al Mthba, and the Co-Founder of Erth Team, a production group trained and specialized in safari trips, aerial photography, and travel documentation.

After obtaining his BA in Environmental Management and Sustainable Development from Bond University in Gold Coast, Australia, AlOfi returned to his hometown of Madina, only to experience a culture shock towards his own community. The difficulty of adaptability inspired a need for creation, and photography became his adjusting mechanism. Treating the holy city as both his studio and an open museum, he began a journey of photographic documentation in 2013. With a focus on cultural artifacts, heritage, and hidden treasures, AlOfi has since expanded to documenting and exploring the greater Madina Region, in both its barren and urbanized glories, and expresses interest in expanding his artistic explorations to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a whole.

Throughout his artistic career, AlOfi has exhibited works in Jeddah, Riyadh, Dammam, Bahrain, Oman, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, London, Paris, Bruxelles, Moscow, New Mexico, Utah, Seoul, Kuwait, and Davos. He was also commissioned to curate exhibitions such as ‘Bridges to Seoul’ in Seoul 2019by Ithra-Aramco at the visit of the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2019, and ‘Naphtha’ in Jeddah by the Ministry of Culture in the same year.