Perrotin New York is pleased to present Cosmic machine, the gallery’s debut exhibition with Monira Al Qadiri and the artist’s first show in New York. Known for her multidisciplinary practice, Al Qadiri explores the intersections of global history, ecology, and the evolving relationship between natural and manufactured environments. Cosmic machine will present a new body of sculptures that explore the impacts of natural resource extraction, which both fuels political narratives and links us to the natural history of the planet. Concurrently, the artist’s monumental installation First Sun will be presented by the Public Art Fund in Central Park.

Born in Senegal and raised in Kuwait, Al Qadiri witnessed the pervasive power and sudden fall of the oil industry during the Gulf War. For centuries, Kuwait thrived on the pearl trade before it was replaced by oil in the 20th century (Al Qadiri's own grandfather was a singer on a pearling boat). As a young child raised in the 1980s in the Middle East, oil refineries were viewed as mystical, high-tech cityscapes, a vision that came crashing down in 1990. At the age of seven, Al Qadiri remembers being trapped in her home looking up at a black sky during the Gulf War, an experience that became part of her identity, her family’s life, and that of the entire region. It was only after leaving Kuwait, first to pursue her art studies in Tokyo and later Beirut, Amsterdam, and Berlin, that Al Qadiri realized the influence oil has to simultaneously advance and destroy society, a contradiction which has become a focus of her practice over the last decade.

Al Qadiri's practice uses the industry of petrochemicals as a point of departure to explore the past while offering possibilities for the future. Presented in seductive metallic and iridescent colors, her works suggest otherworldly, almost alien-like machinery, although their subject matter contain loaded histories. Throughout the exhibition, Al Qadiri displays several series inspired by the forms of drill bits, devices used to burrow into the Earth in search of oil. Using a magnetic technique to levitate the sculptures, her Or-bit series hovers between the shape of ancient pyramids and futuristic architecture. Spectrum depicts forms with an oil-like surface that resemble shrines or tentacles while the surface of her Spectral series recalls the white shine of pearls.

In order to consider the impact of petrochemicals, we must first understand the mechanisms of the oil industry that are often invisible to us. Her series titled Nawa is inspired visually by steel rope cables that carry oil from the depths of the earth to the surface, which, when cut in half, reveal mesmerizing patterns that resemble flowers and blossoms. In her metallic recreation of these ropes, the artist creates an object that mimics the eerie presence oil occupies in our lives and in political discourse.

Hanging from the ceiling in Cosmic machine, Al Qadiri’s Molecular (Propane) depicts the geometry of the molecular chemical compound rendered in gigantic proportion and an alien-like, robotic aesthetic. Al Qadiri discerns that perhaps oil’s most dangerous trait is its ability to permeate our daily lives unnoticed. Petrochemical derivatives have become an inescapable part of our society through synthetic textiles, construction materials, cosmetic products, and common plastics. As petrochemicals are woven into the fabric of society, it becomes more difficult to reconcile the substance’s ability to both revolutionize and destroy our way of life.

Al Qadiri urges us to reflect on how the past and present inform different futures, and which scenario we ultimately want to build. The elusive terrain of Arabian desert is a recurring backdrop for the artist as a place to contemplate fundamental questions of existence. The artwork in the center of the exhibition, titled The guardian, depicts the Calotropis Procera plant, found in the Empty Quarter desert, which secretes a toxic substance that is supposed to cause blindness. For Al Qadiri, the plant is a symbol of man’s blinded relationship with reality and the poison of natural resource extraction.

As a largely untouched terrain, the desert stores both traces of early life forms and a connection to the future. The newest work in the show, titled Reptilian, depicts what most obviously looks like the back of a reptile. For Al Qadiri, the work recalls surfaces of both the Arabian desert and Mars. Scientists have found that parts of the desert in Oman have an eerie similarity to the northern surface of Mars, called Arabia Terra (so much so that it has been used for Mars simulation missions). As scientists and governments look at the habitability of other planets like Mars, Al Qadiri is aware of the possibility that the future of humans may not be on this planet.

In her work, Al Qadiri posits that to achieve success in the future, we must act collectively. The final sculpture series in the show, Man of war, reimagines the marine creature of the same name—a striking organism made up of multiple beings acting as one. Composed of poisonous tentacles, this life form embodies a paradox of power and fragility. In a moment where utopia and dystopia can seem indistinguishable, Al Qadiri urges us to reflect on the importance of interconnectedness in the face of shared vulnerability.