Ayman Zedani is a Saudi-born UAE-based conceptual artist and was the first winner of the Ithra Art Prize in 2018.

Experimentation with different media coupled with a fascination with scientific processes and the properties of unconventional materials are all features that characterize the work of Zedani. The nature of representation as it emerges through the manipulation of elements, objects, shapes and forms defines his experimental attitudes. Encompassing sculpture, photography, painting and digital techniques, his projects are informed by abstraction and the complexity of experiential phenomena, such as the reflection of light or the evaporation of water. His works celebrate the diversity of ideas that can be found through experimentation and they often depict novel layers within accepted traditions and narratives.

Mēm comprises of a spatial installation and is a continuation of his ongoing engagement with the material, space, and the creation of systems as well as the communicative possibilities that exist within a given set of rules.

Starting with a self-designed formula, Zedani created a set of a limited number of variations that manifested in Sixteen objects. It’s comprised of four different parts that affect the depth and height of the two lines engraved in each object. The placement of each line within the object also acts as another layer. Each object is an intersection of two sets of four groups, the first group is the depth and height of the horizontal lines using the main formula, and the second group is the placement of the lines vertically within the object. The assembly of the installation acts as a third layer and each object will be placed depending on the groups they belong to, making them in total equilibrium. A fourth layer is the title, which refers to the Arabic letter Mēm that has a numerical value of forty and therefore four which is the essence of the installation.

This project is a physical representation of the original research and development of Zedani’s ideas under the focus of new forms of public and private communication. By acting as the filter Zedani attempts to deliver an information carrier in form of installation. Also, he allows irregularities and deviations within order through the synthesis of his own experience of the world by disassembling and reassembling systems. and as most of Zedani’s work, the different layers that give meaning and different readings of the project is always of interest.