The Sound of Millstone, 2024

Najla Alqubaisi’s The Sound of Millstone (2024) is an audiovisual installation that offers a glimpse into the customs of rural women from the past in Najd, the central region of Saudi Arabia.

Based on Alqubaisi’s documentation of oral heritage, the newly commissioned artwork features folk songs that Najdi women composed and sang as they spent long hours at the millstone. This milling process is visualized on sand through projection mapping in the form of a circle, recreating a millstone. Artificial intelligence generates dynamic shapes and movements that dance across the surface, interacting with the folk song and the sounds of grinding grains.

The viewer is transported to the heart of the scene to witness the laborious production of flour, a fundamental life source for humanity. As the women turn the millstone and crush the grains into flour, the audience is invited to liken this process to preserving life and, perhaps, posterity.