Zero: The Climate Race Building monuments to the end of oil
Sep 18, 2025
Monira Al Qadiri, a contemporary artist from Kuwait, explores the intricate relationship between art and oil. She reflects on her childhood experiences of the 1990–91 oil fires and discusses how her works, like 'Behind the Sun,' reclaim those narratives. Al Qadiri links fragile memories to the aesthetics of the oil industry, revealing both beauty and sadness. She also dives into the complexities of climate activism and the controversies surrounding funding in art, revealing how ambiguity can play a pivotal role in challenging the status quo.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Childhood Witness To Burning Oil
- Monira Al Qadiri witnessed Kuwait's 1990–91 oil fires as a child and remembers rain and landscapes coated in black oil.
- That visceral childhood memory became the emotional nucleus of her art practice exploring oil's presence.
Reclaiming War Footage With Cultural Context
- Behind the Sun reworks amateur footage of Kuwait's burning oil wells with Islamic TV excerpts to probe the sublime in destruction.
- Monira made it partly to respond to Werner Herzog's Lessons of Darkness and reclaim cultural context.
Glass Birds As Fragile Memory
- Onus is a sculpture of about 50 black glass birds meant to recall oil-coated wildlife from the war.
- She used fragile glass to symbolize how human memory can be manipulated and doubted over time.
