Produced during Ugo Schiavi’s research residency at Villa Hegra (Al-Ula) in Saudi Arabia, this fused glass sculpture captures the essence of an icon in a meditative state. Inspired by the primeval figure of a farmer and crafted using advanced digital techniques, the work comprises three layered sections created through photogrammetry—3D scans drawn from the artist’s surroundings and encounters. The central form, based on a scan of a local Al-Ula farmer, hovers between iconic sculpture and votive shrine, evoking humanity’s ancestral ties to land, food, and planetary rhythms.

The use of glass, closely linked to sand and desert landscapes, reinforces this connection, embodying a tension between the material rigor of its making and the ethereal play of light and transparency. Schiavi completes the piece with a lemon, placed like an offering within the sculpture’s middle section, transforming it into an altar. The contrast of color and materiality between the citrus and the glass sculpture invites reflection on memory, ritual, the passing of time, and the evolution of myths. Through this intricate assembly, the sculpture conjures a contemporary mythology that weaves together the enduring legacy of past civilizations and the unsettling remains of our present.