Art Residency.
Khayal
Silhouettes of Light and Memory
A collaborative series of sculptural paper works created with illustrator Farah Allegue during a residency at Jnane Tamsna in Marrakech — Khayal is an ode to the Mediterranean, where light, shadow, and memory intertwine.
Khayal, meaning both silhouette and imagination in Arabic, was born from a shared intimacy with the Mediterranean — that sea which carries the light of our childhoods, the hush of olive trees in the afternoon, and the shimmer of endless days by the coast.
Created in collaboration with Tunisian illustrator Farah Allegue during a spring residency at Jnane Tamsna in Marrakech, this body of work explores the rhythms of nature and memory. Farah’s delicate motifs — flowing lines evoking floral abstraction and organic movement — were translated into sculptural paper forms: pleated, cut, and layered to dance with the light.
As sunlight filters through the intricate lacework of cut paper, Khayal comes to life. Shadows drift across walls and bodies like the dappled shade beneath a bougainvillea or an ancient olive tree. The materials — from matte textures to mirror-like metallics — respond to the light as the sea does, glinting, shifting, holding memory in their gleam.
The colours echo this sensory memory: deep turquoise like coastal waters, soft sandy beige, rich chocolate brown, vibrant pinks recalling bougainvillea blossoms, and the hypnotic gold of sunlight on waves. Each tone carries a feeling — a fragment of landscape, a warmth on skin, a scent of salt and earth.
More than a series of objects, Khayal is a shared reverie. It speaks of home not as a place, but as a feeling — a return to something we all carry: the Mediterranean as light, as sound, as memory.
More about the Khayal’s Signature Dinner at Jnane Tamsna: here.
Khayal — Silhouettes of Light and Memory
a return to what calls us, always.
the quiet pull of the Mediterranean light,
its shadows dancing through the leaves of the olive trees,
the golden shimmer on water at dusk.
A feeling we all carry —
the warmth of home without walls,
where memory, body, and landscape blur.
Born from that shared tenderness,
that same sea we never quite leave.
A silhouette.
An imagination.
A reverie.
