Saeed Gebaan
VACUUM OF SELF
Exploring perception through invisible forces.
“Vacuum of Self” explores the formation of perception through invisible forces - fear, atmosphere, sound, tension, and memory.
INTRODUCTION
“Vacuum of Self” is a kinetic installation exploring the formation of perception through invisible forces — fear, atmosphere, sound, tension, and memory. Rooted in childhood memories from the Gulf War era, the work examines how invisible atmospheres of fear become embedded within perception long before they become conscious memory.
PROJECT STATEMENT
“Vacuum of Self” originates from an early childhood encounter with a domestic vacuum cleaner during a period marked by atmospheric tension and invisible danger. At the time, everyday life had become psychologically charged. Images of taped windows, fear of chemical attacks, and the fragility of air itself transformed domestic space into a condition of uncertainty.
Within this environment, the vacuum cleaner emerged not as a household appliance, but as a strange technological presence carrying invisible forces. Its sound, vibration, and suction introduced a disturbing sensory experience that existed somewhere between fascination and fear. Drawn by curiosity and imagination, the artist directed the machine toward the body in an unconscious attempt to negotiate this unstable reality.
The work reconstructs that moment not as memory alone, but as a perceptual condition. The machine becomes a symbolic structure through which the self confronts instability, attraction, disappearance, and psychological absorption. Suction operates as both a physical mechanism and a metaphorical force - pulling the body toward an uncertain threshold between external reality and internal perception.
Through movement, sound, air, and kinetic tension, “Vacuum of Self” transforms an ordinary object into a psychological and atmospheric presence. The installation examines how invisible historical and emotional forces become embedded within human awareness, shaping the formation of identity, fear, and sensory memory.
Rather than documenting trauma directly, the work approaches perception as the site where historical realities become embodied experience. It is within perception that collective conditions silently accumulate, shaping awareness long before they become memory, language, or understanding.
PROCESS & RESEARCH
The project investigates the psychological impact of wars, crises, and large-scale social transformations on the unconscious and the formation of perception. Rather than examining conflict through direct representation, the research focuses on how invisible atmospheres of fear, uncertainty, and anticipation become embedded within everyday life, shaping memory, behavior, and collective consciousness.
Rooted in childhood memories from the Gulf War era, “Vacuum of Self” began from a simple sensory encounter with a domestic vacuum cleaner — an object that gradually transformed into a psychological and symbolic presence. Through sound, air, vibration, and bodily tension, the work reconstructs a fragile moment in which fear and curiosity coexist, and where perception becomes unstable.
The development of the project involved personal recollection, archival references, philosophical and psychoanalytic research, kinetic experimentation, and investigations into the sensory qualities of movement, sound, and atmospheric tension. Rather than reconstructing an event, the work seeks to reconstruct a condition of perception — a moment in which invisible historical realities become embodied experience.
CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT
The visual and kinetic development of “Vacuum of Self” evolved through a long process of experimentation with image, sound, movement, and bodily perception. The project did not begin from a fixed visual form, but from an attempt to reconstruct a psychological condition through sensory experience.
Early stages of the work involved memory reconstruction, written reflections, archival references, and studies surrounding the psychological effects of war, uncertainty, and unconscious fear. These ideas gradually expanded into material and visual experiments investigating suction, pressure, vibration, distortion, and the physical relationship between the body and invisible forces.
Through repeated testing, the vacuum cleaner shifted from being understood as a domestic object into a symbolic and perceptual structure. Sound became an instrument of tension, movement became a trigger for bodily awareness, and air itself emerged as a material connected to instability, anxiety, and sensory vulnerability.
The project developed through multiple phases of experimentation, including kinetic studies, visual distortion tests, lighting experiments, atmospheric image construction, and the integration of video and close-up documentation. Rather than illustrating memory directly, the process focused on recreating how memory feels within perception.
This ongoing development transformed the work into an immersive psychological environment where fear, attraction, curiosity, and instability coexist within a single sensory experience.
TECHNICAL INFORMATION
Title: Vacuum of Self
Year: 2026
Medium: Kinetic Installation
Materials: Mixed media, sound, air system, kinetic components
Dimensions: Variable
ARTIST STATEMENT
Saeed Gebaan is a Saudi contemporary artist whose practice explores perception, presence, and invisible systems through kinetic, sonic, and atmospheric installations.
His work investigates how unseen forces - psychological, environmental, technological, and social - shape human awareness and collective consciousness. Through movement, sound, air, material transformation, and immersive environments, he creates experiential situations that exist between embodiment, tension, and perceptual instability.
Gebaan approaches art as a sensory and existential encounter rather than a fixed representation, transforming ordinary materials and phenomena into psychological structures that invite contemplation of presence, memory, and the fragility of contemporary experience.
BIOGRAPHY
Saeed Gebaan (b. 1989, Abha, Saudi Arabia) is a contemporary artist and co-founder of Phi Studio. His interdisciplinary practice intersects kinetic systems, sensory environments, conceptual installation, and experimental research.
He has participated in exhibitions and programs including Noor Riyadh, Bienalsur at SAMoCA Riyadh, Quoz Arts Fest Dubai, and a residency at Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris.
Contact
Tel : +966565335995 Instagram: @gebaann EMAIL: [email protected] Website: https://gebaan.com/