Land serves as a record of what power does to it, through borders drawn and redrawn, populations expelled, and ecologies destroyed. Qatari artist and filmmaker Majid Al-Remaihi has made this his subject. Born in 1995 in Doha, he focuses his practice on the Gulf’s history of conflicts and their aftermaths.

Set on Failaka, a depopulated island east of mainland Kuwait, his film Perishable Idol (2024) gives voice to the spirit of Inzak, a forgotten Dilmunian god whose shrine once stood on its shores. The Gulf War's permanent evacuation in the 1990s marked the first time in five millennia the spirit witnessed a complete absence of humans. Decades later, a native archaeologist returns and the specter asks him to construct a body with dates, a ritual through which it can transform into a decaying idol. The island itself mirrors the decay: ionic columns from an ancient Greek temple of Artemis stand near concrete bunkers spray-painted with the words “FREE KUWAIT.”