Oil is everywhere: in your cell phone and your cosmetics, in the fuel tank of the charter plane, in the children's plastic lunch box, in your new sneakers and in your gum. Petrochemicals -- converted from oil -- are everywhere in the global world's industry, transportation and heating. But what are the implications of our relationship with oil for our climate, community economies and culture? Starting this autumn, ARKEN will present a major exhibition with Kuwaiti artist Monira Al Qadiri, who will install huge works throughout ARKEN's Art Axis: floating sculptures shaped like petrochemical molecules, pearlescent, rotating drill heads and a video work that lets us fly like drones through an oil field.

Al Qadiri (b. 1983) was born in Senegal and raised in Kuwait, where in a few generations the main occupation has changed from pearl fishing to oil extraction. Today she lives and works in Berlin. Her surrealistic universe delves far into the history and mythology of both oil and pearls as she examines the cultural significance of the oil industry and capitalism in the world today.