One with the Soil, One with the Cloud

One with the Soil, One with the Cloud, 2023

Jubail Mangrove Park, Manar Abu Dhabi (UAE)
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Curated by Reem Fadda & Alia Lootah
Department of Culture & Tourism Abu Dhabi
Photography by Ethara & Rain Wu

Like the starry sky that ancient people gazed upon in awe, light remains to this day, the purest metaphor of the divine. One with the Soil, One with the Cloud brings a quiet contemplation to Manar Abu Dhabi on the darkness that surrounds us and the wonder that overtakes us when we pause to consider - from the Latin root ‘with stars’ - both at the mangroves teeming with animal and vegetal lives, and our own presence on earth.

A luminous swarm floats above the heads of the mangrove trees, swaying at the rhythm of the wind. Reflected by the movement of the tides, its flickering lights project mid-way to the sky, animating the life cycles in the tangles of branches and roots: the brief summers of the insects, the travelling of the mycelium, the slow dreaming of the plants, are brought out of hiding and made visible to the visitors with their alternations of life and death, light and darkness. One with the Soil, One with the Cloud celebrates the beauty and ephemerality of existence, offering a glimpse of what our living world looks like, as seen from above.