Vernacular (Blindness, Blossom and Desertification), 2026

The paintings from this series come from a personal urgency to engage with the functional necessities of art within ritual practices and the environment. Using spices and powders such as hibiscus, green lalo, ashes, charcoal, paprika, red clay and soil on linen or canvas, Ben Hamouda creates textural references to rock and cave surfaces related to art since the dawn of humankind. These visuals are the result of very quick gestures of the hand: the throwing of powders and brushstrokes mimicking Arabic text that the artist has practiced since childhood. Containing these calligraphic references, these paintings also became a mirror of the artist’s steel and iron calligraphic series Aniconism as Figurative Urgency (2021-ongoing).