185 x 185 cm
Plastic toy gun cap mounted on wooden board
2024
Toy guns and their little red caps were ubiquitous for Saudi youth in the late 20th century. Called ‘Western Gun Caps’, they could be found everywhere across the Kingdom. This large-scale wall-based installation of "ten commandments", listed in Arabic and English using these plastic toy gun caps of Ahmed's youth are the appropriation of a song first performed by Gene Autry in the 40s, but also have resonances with Hadith (the recorded teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, PBUH).
The piece, Hurriya, executed in 2023 is a continuation of the Guncaps which was initially conceived in 2012.
Over the course of ten years, our lives changed completely. It is a drastic change that I experience every day. The Cowboy Code is something I have thought about for years. When I was a child, the cowboy was always a symbol of freedom and adventure, an ideology that came from the West and assimilated itself into my culture. Like many of my generation, I have taken a lot from the West – the food we eat, the clothes we wear, even our language. I wanted to present this code as a way of reclaiming these qualities as opposed to purely commodity-driven influences. I want to move these compatible beliefs away from politics, away from media and give them back to the people. Ahmed Mater2012
These huge wall-based installations are made by sticking together thousands of tiny plastic gun caps.