Al Khayal in Hakaa is an installation commissioned by Almakan, a cultural hub for food and visual art in Kuwait City, to communicate to the visitors the 3-year journey of Almakan to come to fruition. It started as an idea of creating a contemporary restaurant between two of the partners studying together, whilst the two other partners were talking about opening an art gallery until there was a meeting of the minds and the most contemporary food and art concept was created in Kuwait. The four quantifiable elements in this journey were, finding the location, developing the idea, creating things (culinary dishes, designs) and the logo.

In the installation, the movement is linear, starting from 3 years ago and moving forward chronologically, the data is very clear where the memory is clear. It’s interrupted by moments of creativity which are a product of Time’s character (blurriness being only one of Time’s creative acts). Time messes with everything; space and number. Light must be proportional to activity (brighter when the period was busier, dimmer when they weren’t so active). The interactive aspect is at the end, a drawing tablet where people can type their thoughts and see them on the wall as well as all the other visitors who contributed.

I loved working with the concept, Time, because it is immaterial, and I am very comfortable with working with materials, so my challenge was to communicate time in space. And during my research I found that Time, Space and Number are the three elements that make up the fourth dimension, I was excited because they are the three things that make up this installation.