Malika Sqalli

1001 Stories, at 250

Artist have always intervened in a landscape through installation or performance like Richard Long or Zander Olsen , or intervened over photographs or paintings like Gerghard Richter or Arnulf Rainer. One day in 2014 I decided to take the yellow line of the road - this metaphoric abstraction of life path in another series into the sky, for the sky is the limit. I realised then, as I was learning to skydive for the shot that there are no conceptual fine art photographs done in the sky that I could find. I decided to turn it into a playground for experimentation. It is also redefining our perception of the landscape, beyond the bird eye view. I have spent hours as a kid turning the pages of Yann Arthus Bertrand aerial images marvelling at the abstraction and the similarity they had with biology, I wanted to experience it, physically. There is also the notion of skewed time and space - for the 30 seconds I have to make the shots - I do go from 4000 to 1000 meters but the landscape doesnt change like it does when hiking. It is a backdrop, the same way a photograph or painting or drawing I would intervene on would be. I wasnt completely done with the series. I felt something was missing Then it came to me, I created little characters in child like manner, tapping into that inner child way of marvelling at the world as if it is new everyday in a Alice and wonderland kind of way, especially as our world is becoming has been turned upside town. This is an ode to imagination, fairytale, overcoming of fear and empowerment of dreams.

Polaroids - Ephemerals

Feeding the soul through nature, Clearing the mind and the brain through abstraction. A call toward a return to an analogue life, slowing down took me to polaroids and embroidering and drawing on them Snow is white and pure, immaculate, until we stain it. Snowflakes are delicate and fragile, ice hard and yet it can melt or break if temperatures rise. Will snow become a luxury? Can we protect our planet and bring back better stability in our ecosystem? Some of these polaroids are set on a recycled paper with fragments of plastic with all the meanings that can hide in this choice. We can be mindful and playful with nature, or we can be destructive. We can have a structured approach in our dealing with the issues of our world today or we can be totally chaotic, erratic and all over the place. We can see ourselves are embedded with nature or as looking at it through a screen and as a stage for selfie, and resources to exploit.

Tales of the Fireflies

Lift your tail Live your tale, Fairly, Fiery, Firefly,Fairy Feather and pony I walk in the mountains and in the woods to find something and someone buried deep inside of me, raw, naked, free. I want to find all the particles that contain inside of them the whole universe, light them up in fireworks. In the wilderness, I am allowed to be, a human in all my multiplicities, like the many branches of a tree. When I walk by the river, through forest, when I climb a mountain, I remember that I am part of something greater. I am home In a society, we are wearing all kinds of clothing and masks, the tangible fabrics but also invisible ones. Some of those we are not aware of. They are inherited, expected, accepted. Some are mode of expression and identity, a language that can reveal more details than nakedness, it can tell stories and hide them at the same time. When entering nature I am allowed to take everything off - stripped of all narrative but the one of being human and As John Berger puts it "Nudity is a form of dress" In the woods i find strange creatures, and the strange ones inside of me are allowed to come out and play. That can sometimes highlight the clowns i may become in the cities and the grotesque circus i can get entwined in if i forget to be mindful, to slow down, learn the rules of the games . It is as if photography was an animal and the woods, the forest its natural habitat. Growing up I didn’t know the feeling of home at " home". I have recently learnt that I am on the spectrum, I come to understand how my inner world and nature are my home. I become a firefly, those whimsical pixies of the night, guardians of the beauty of the world. . Our soul is itself contained in another landscape. The one that is a physical boundary and link with the outside in a sensory geography. It allows the mind into a larger scope. This physical body lets us touch, be touched and to enter the tangible and playful enactment of it all, a new. A Playground that expands us. A home.

Weeds or Flowers

Part of the Series : Weed or Flowers developed in Switzerland as a reflection on tourism and what it does to the mountains 
This image is  part of the series of  double exposures analogue photos  with light leaks which helped me bring forth a feeling of otherworldliness. 
On the peaks, away from the crowds of the valley I could breath. 
The series is an ode “ ​to get on top of things “​ and ​elevate ​ourselves to our best version in our dealings on and with our planet, as in the words of ​Abou Firasse Al Hamdani ​ “وأعلى ذوي العلا “Be higher with the highest “.