“Transformation Jinniyat Lar 1996-2026” collection. by Shadia Alem.
Photos Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale 2026, Riyadh 2026
© Shadia Alem - visual artist - Saudi Arabia
Transformation Jinniyat Lar 1996-2026
Technique
Acrylic collage and mix medium
Limited edition 5 + 1AP
The accompanying texts do not describe the images. They operate in parallel, attending to transformation as a material and sensory state. Image and text remain autonomous, meeting through proximity rather than illustration.
This text results of AI experiments, close collaboration between artist and by ChatGPT, inspired by Raja Alem’s style.
Bā
“I did not change in form;
it is you who changed the way you look.
Read me as a bend, not a body.
My colors are durations,
my openings invitations or refusals.
I do not advance
I coil.
What you call transformation
is simply how I remain unfinished.
Hold me, and I harden.
Waver, and I open.
In reading me,
your own edges loosen.”
Yā
I am not singular.
I gather through multiplicity.
Every limb remembers a different origin.
What you see as excess
is how I survive division.
Do not attempt to follow me.
I rearrange myself
even as you watch.
What was head becomes echo;
what was center disperses into swarm.
Transformation is not passage—
it is congestion,
futures crowding a single skin.
If you seek my truest form,
listen where bodies overlap.
9ād
9ād
I am what remains
after form has been tested.
I carry the memory of pressure.
Every opening is a wound
that learned endurance.
Do not search for my beginning.
I am shaped by repetition—
by passing through myself
until the excess falls away.
Transformation is not growth.
It is what survives
when the surface stops pretending.
If you recognize me,
It is because something in you
has already been worn through.
Nūn
I exist only in relation.
When I fold, something else unfolds.
My center is not fixed—
it circulates between your hands,
between reaching
and withdrawal.
Transformation occurs
where two movements agree
not to dominate.
Separate me,
and I lose coherence.
Enter the interval,
and I hold you.
What you call balance
is simply the courage
to remain unfinished together.
6’a
I bend because gravity remembers me.
My ornament is not surface—
it is the archive of every pause
that kept me from collapsing.
Transformation is an agreement with weight.
I do not resist the pull;
I learn its direction.
When you think I bow,
I am listening.
Follow my curve downward
and you will find
descent is another form of knowledge.
Hā
I did not arrive—
I slipped.
My limbs remember
what language forgets.
Every gesture is an escape
from premature naming.
Transformation lives
at the edge of the fall,
where intention loosens
and the body chooses otherwise.
Do not steady me.
What you call imbalance
is my way out.
If you lose sight of me,
it is because I have learned
to leave without disappearing.
Siin
I do not see as you do.
My senses bend the signal
until meaning loosens its grip.
What arrives to me
is already altered.
Transformation is interference.
The productive error
that opens another channel.
I receive what does not stabilize,
what trembles
between frequencies.
If my vision distorts,
it is because clarity
was never the goal.
Remain here long enough,
and even certainty
will begin to vibrate.
Lām
I am not hidden—
I am layered.
What you call excess
is how I protect my core.
I veil myself with motion,
with borrowed limbs,
with the noise of becoming many.
Do not try to separate me.
Each fragment
knows the breath of the others.
Transformation is not clarity.
It is dwelling
within what cannot be disentangled.
Wait long enough,
and I will reveal myself—
not by lifting the veil,
but by teaching you
how to see through it.
Alef
I move by yielding.
What cuts through me
also gives me direction.
The fracture you notice
is where I learned to flow.
Transformation is not escape.
It is the patience of water
accepting every obstacle
as a temporary shape.
Do not try to mend me.
What appears broken
is already on its way elsewhere.
If you follow my current,
you will discover
that continuity
is made of interruptions
Kaf
I do not burn outward.
I coil the flame.
My brightness is folded,
stored in ridges,
in the patience of ornament
that learned how to wait.
Transformation is not eruption.
It is intensity
that agrees to remain held.
Do not provoke me.
What you read as stillness
is concentration.
If I move,
it will be because the moment
has finally learned
how to receive me.
Thā
There is no safe direction.
Every path bends back into me.
What you call guidance
is the moment you accept
that blue does not promise mercy.
It only insists.
In the hollow where my lines converge,
sound abandons meaning
and silence learns how to roar.
Transformation begins
when loneliness breaks its seal
and thirst becomes a compass.
If a light appears,
do not trust its origin.
It shines only to teach you
how to enter
what will undo you.
Wao
Wao
I am written
where you expected flesh.
My curves are sentences
that refuse to conclude.
Each loop returns you
to what you have not yet learned to read.
Transformation is not revelation.
It is literacy earned through vertigo.
Turn me upside down.
I will still speak.
What matters is not orientation,
but your willingness
to be deciphered in return.
If you reach for meaning too quickly,
my script will close.
Wait, and the body
will finish the sentence for you.
Shiin
I learn by moving.
My body thinks faster
than intention.
What you call instinct
is knowledge
that refused your language.
I fold, I roll, I take flight
not to escape,
but to follow
what has already begun to stir.
Transformation is not choice.
It is obedience
to a truth that has claws.
If you wish to know
what I know,
you must let your senses
become feral.
6a
I travel with my shadow ahead of me.
What you see is never my source.
I move by projection,
by the promise of a form
that has not yet arrived.
Transformation is not illumination.
It is learning
how to dwell inside obscurity
without asking it to explain itself.
Do not follow my colors.
They are only the echo.
Attend instead
to what moves behind me
and gives me permission to appear.
I decide
when I am visible
Tā
Tā
I am made of converging winds.
What you take for conflict
is how I learn to move together.
One current remembers,
the other invents.
Transformation is not resolution.
It is the discipline
of carrying more than one direction
without tearing.
I advance by entwining.
What follows me
is not a past,
but a force
that insists on remaining alive.
If you feel pulled,
do not resist.
You are being braided
into what comes next.
9’ad
I do not advance—I return
with greater force.
What circles me
is not repetition
but mastery.
Each turn deepens
what the first only announced.
Transformation is not novelty.
It is recognition
earned through motion.
I carry my beginning
inside my curve.
What you thought was behind you
has learned how to lead.
If you follow my spiral,
do not expect an exit.
The center is not release—
it is where you agree
to stay.
7’ā
7’ā
I did not withdraw.
I enclosed myself.
What you call a cocoon
is not concealment
but precision—
a listening tightened around becoming.
Inside me, motion learns patience.
Form rehearses
without being seen.
Transformation is not emergence.
It is the courage
to remain unfinished
until necessity arrives.
Do not tear the veil.
What is forming here
will appear
only when it can survive
the air.
8af
I did not come from form.
I came from a letter.
Inside the first groove,
light learned how to wait.
What you see on my surface
is only the shadow
of a voice too wide for one body.
I carry marks
not as wounds
but as signals.
Each blemish repeats
what cannot be shown whole.
Transformation is not becoming visible.
It is daring to transmit
what burns inward.
Come closer.
Do not look for an image.
Spell me slowly.
Between the first sound
and the last,
I remain.
3ain
I no longer ask to be entered.
I remain
as arrangement—
wing aligned with breath,
weight reconciled with drift.
Transformation ends
when nothing insists.
What is necessary
has already taken place.
I do not vanish.
I settle
into the exact distance
required to endure.
If you sense me,
it is not because I speak,
but because something in you
has learned
how to stay.
Jeem
I pause without stopping.
What appears suspended
is only listening
for the next alteration of rhythm.
Transformation is not arrival.
It is learning
when not to advance.
I remain intact
by refusing urgency.
Zain
I do not lift myself to escape.
My wings are instruments of measure.
They test the air
before consenting to it.
Transformation is vigilance.
A body held
between readiness and refusal.
I advance
only as far as attention allows.
If I remain close to the ground,
it is because precision
requires proximity.
Nothing here is accidental.
Even the pause
has learned how to watch
Ra
Ra
I take the posture that suffices.
I do not push forward,
nor do I retreat.
I choose my place
as light chooses its edge.
Transformation is not completion.
It is the ability
to remain quiet
while the world around me speaks.
If anything remains after me,
it is the space
I learned
how to leave intact.
