When the Roses Wake
Knowledge held in working hands.
The collection’s Saudi Arabian narrative considers family, landscape and knowledge learned through participation. Its story turns towards the rose harvest of Taif and the relationship between cultivation, craft and the traditions of hospitality.
The catalogue’s Saudi Arabian story centres on the rose harvest of Taif, where several generations participate in cultivation and craft.
Rose gathering connects the mountain landscape with fragrance, gifting and hospitality. Baskets, terraces and a distillation vessel provide the narrative’s material references.
This chapter considers what can be learned through doing something together. Landscape becomes part of family knowledge: a season recognised, a skill practised, a task shared.
Malak turns away from the familiar desert imagery often associated with Saudi Arabia and travels conceptually towards the mountains of Taif, where families gather roses in the early morning. Three generations take part in the harvest: grandmother, mother and children move through fields of pink among mountain terraces, baskets and traditional stone architecture. The relationship is active rather than posed — the younger generation learns by joining in.
The cultural practices associated with Taif roses were recognised by UNESCO in 2024. Harvesting traditionally brings together families and communities, while rose products remain connected to welcome, gifting, fragrance and hospitality. A copper distillation vessel, or rose-water flask, becomes the inherited object in Malak's composition, allowing cultivation to transition visually into craft.
The palette shifts accordingly: rose, sage, cream, copper and mountain blue replace the expected monochrome desert tones. This distinction matters within Series 6. Where the United Arab Emirates painting considers inheritance through the majesty of an elder and the rituals of coffee, Saudi Arabia is expressed through participation in landscape — hands harvesting, learning and making together. Country-linked Saudi sand anchors the mountain environment materially within the canvas. The work becomes an image of inheritance at its most tangible:
knowledge transferred not through instruction alone, but through the simple act of doing something together.
Pearls of Song
