Ayman Zedani’s investigative practice works to upend our comprehension of the past and challenge our acceptance of the future. His work includes videos, installations, and immersive environments that consider the future of the Gulf. His resultant projects are platforms to invite audiences to observe human-nonhuman symbiosis, leaving his narratives open to a multitude of interpretations and questions. His arc of inquiry highlights the interactions and relationships of humans in more-than-human worlds, framing his practices and projects as extended animism.  

Zedani’s practice occurs beyond a strict classification and highlights a constant renegotiation of humanity’s relationship to nature, especially from a regional context. His previous projects include an almost sacral quality, highlighting material play and featuring stone, clay, charcoal, salt, and concrete in austere displays. Zedani’s projects have recently moved into the manipulation of the function and form of organic materials, including trees, plants, bacteria, and other living matter as well as more immersive storytelling featuring nonhuman protagonists.  

The construction and consumption of nature in the Gulf are central to his explorative process as well as elements of animist and polytheist themes found in pre-Islamic Arabia, where nonhuman elements existed in harmony with humans. New materialist philosophies, such as the agency of matter and the notion of making kin, also feature in his approach to creating new hybrid spaces built on weaving the factual and fictional. His themes of speculative futures move beyond the margins of Gulf Futurism and centralize the legacy of regional ecological and cultural lineage. His multilayered projects are built on a series of experiments and investigations exploring multispecies collaboration and various forms of knowledge as a foundation to overcome the challenges of the Anthropocene.  

Zedani’s recent projects include: “The Heavens Is For All,” Islamic Arts Biennale, Jeddah (2023); “The Keepers,” Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden (2022); “The Valley of the Desert Keepers,” Desert X AlUla (2022); “The Desert Keepers,” Portrait of a Nation II, Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation (2022); “Between Desert Seas,” Diriyah Biennale, Diriyah (2021); permanent installation “Terrapolis,” the Sustainability Pavilion, Expo 2020, Dubai (2020); “Between the Heavens and the Earth,” Lahore Biennial, Lahore (2020); “the return of the old ones,” 21’39, Jeddah (2020); “Between Muddles and Tangles,” NYUAD Gallery, Abu Dhabi (2019); “Sailing Stones,” Bienalsur International Biennial, Buenos Aires (2019); “non-human-assembly,” Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah (2018); “Khamsa,” Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris (2018). He won the inaugural Ithra Art Prize and presented “Mēm” (2018). Zedani had his debut solo show, “bahar-bashar-shajar-hajar” (sea-human-tree-stone), curated by Murtaza Vali, at Athr Gallery, Jeddah (2019).