Weekendpaper* | The young Saudi creatives rejecting ultra-modernism

Hannah Silver, Arts, Watches & Jewellery Editor

Welcome to the latest Weekendpaper*, the new Saturday newsletter from the Wallpaper* editors that brings our weekly pick of need-to-know stories, outstanding events and tempting purchases, direct to your inbox.

It has been a busy week for the Wallpaper* arts desk. We sadly marked the passing of Robert Wilson – the visionary theatre artist whose innovative use of light revolutionised the field of visual arts and performance. Rest in peace. 

Gallery visits and artist interviews have been in full swing before the boondock days of August. Visiting artists in their studios or exhibition spaces is one of the most special and privileged parts of the job, and we have particularly enjoyed recent conversations with Kikuji Kawadas, Alick Phiri, William Kentridge and Justine Kurland, amongst many others. There is lots more to come in September; we are very much looking forward to Danielle McKinney at Galerie Max Hetzler, Kerry James Marshall at the Royal Academy and Sonia Boyce at Hauser & Wirth.

Until then, the rest of your Weekendpaper* reading awaits. Get to know the Saudi creatives preserving the country's heritage, a fashion label reborn and a no-brainer artist's tool.

Seemingly able to turn her hand to anything, Ronan Mckenzie is one of London’s most dexterous multi-hyphenates. A celebrated photographer, curator, and designer, she closed her beloved gallery space, Home, in 2023 to focus her energies on Selasi, the brand she founded in the stillness of lockdown in 2020. Launched with a series of earth-toned designs that clung to the body in sensual, architecturally draped shapes, Mckenzie has steadily grown the brand over the past five years, approaching each facet of Selasi from a place of feeling. ‘Selasi comes from a very tactile place, and a place about where I'm exploring connection and comfort and how things feel,’ she says. ‘How I feel, how the fabrics feel, how I want other people to feel.’ Orla Brennan meets the polymath ahead of her London pop-up.

At this year’s Watches & Wonders, Van Cleef & Arpels unveiled Naissance de l’Amour, a one-of-a-kind automaton featuring the figure of Cupid rising from a feathered basket to the sound of a carillon.

Carved from white, rose and yellow gold, and decorated with coloured lacquer and diamonds, it turns gently on itself before disappearing once more, uniting jewellery craftsmanship with intricate mechanics. At its heart is the work of François Junod, the Swiss automaton-maker who has been collaborating with the French Maison since 2017.

Junod’s work is defined by a refusal to hide its mechanisms. 'In old automatons, the mechanism was often hidden to avoid revealing the secrets of their manufacture,' he says. 'Today, I prefer to show the mechanisms as much as possible – to see the spectacle that is kinetic poetry.' His automata make visible the gears and cams driving their motion. 'The poetry of movement is seen through the finish of the components, the design and symbolic aspect of certain pieces, the proportions and the finesse of execution.' Joshua Hendren meets the Swiss craftsman on a quest for perfection.

In a remarkably short span of time, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – long pictured in the Western imagination, as an exotic land of oases and oil derricks – has transformed itself into a dynamic state in a fast-paced race towards modernity. From the (controversial) Neom megacity on the Red Sea and the kilometre-high Jeddah Tower, to investments in emergency technology, such as AI, and under the government’s Vision 2030 initiative, Saudi Arabia has been rapidly diversifying its domestic economy, simultaneously aiming to remake its image abroad into that of an innovative juggernaut, with technological and urban development at its heart. But a group of young practitioners is balancing the country's rapid urban development and technological aspirations with an emphasis on community, ecology, and heritage. Ian Volner meets the creatives driving change.