ISLAMABAD: Pakistani multidisciplinary artist Sara Shakeel says Saudi Arabia played a significant role in taking her signature crystal art to a new scale, transforming an initial desert installation in Riyadh into a much larger commission for the Kingdom’s prestigious Saudi Cup.
Shakeel, a Pakistani-born, London-based artist known for transforming everyday objects and images with crystals, first gained international attention through digital collages she began posting on Instagram in 2016. Her practice has since expanded into large-scale physical installations combining crystals, glass and light and crossed art, music, fashion and major global brands.
In 2019, Shakeel created the crystal-covered artwork for Chance the Rapper’s debut album The Big Day and designed pieces for a related pop-up installation in Chicago. She has also worked on commissions and collaborations with brands and institutions including Reebok, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Evian, Browns and London’s NOW Gallery, where her crystal-covered dining installation The Great Supper marked her transition from digital work into large-scale physical art. More recently, she created a sprawling solar-system installation in Hong Kong incorporating millions of crystals and traditional Pakistani craftsmanship.
Shakeel’s Saudi journey began with a commission from the Saudi Research and Media Group (SRMG), one of the Middle East’s largest media groups, and its Arabic fashion and lifestyle publication Hia. For Hia Hub, the magazine’s annual fashion and lifestyle conference in Riyadh’s JAX District, a cultural and creative hub in the Saudi capital, Shakeel transformed a desert landscape and traditional tent with her trademark crystals. The installation, known as Oasis or Waha, created an immersive crystallized desert environment.
“I have received a lot of love from Saudi Arabia,” Shakeel told Arab News during an interview in Islamabad this week at her exhibition, “All Roads Lead to Home,” her first solo show in Pakistan.
“I would say my first ever crystal desert that I brought to life was through SRMG. They commissioned me to create, I brought this concept to them, and they absolutely loved it.”
Shakeel said the installation subsequently caught the attention of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Culture.
“And from there onwards, Ministry of Culture saw the crystal desert, and they wanted it 10 times bigger for one of their most expensive horse racing cups called, race called the Saudi Cup for 2023,” she said.
The resulting Oasis installation at the 2023 Saudi Cup featured shimmering indoor sand dunes, digital interpretations of Saudi landmarks and a crystal-covered horse sculpture. Contemporary coverage said the horse was covered in more than 25 million crystals and took 864 hours to create.
The Saudi Ministry of Culture organized a wider cultural program around the race that year, incorporating art, fashion, food and traditional performances alongside the sporting event, with Shakeel’s Oasis among its featured installations.
It was a relatively simple idea: turning the desert itself into something that sparkled.
“So, I created a crystal desert, with a very traditional tent, and it was all crystalized,” Shakeel said. “It was a wonderful collaboration.”
