The Dolphin Valley (detail), 2019, Watercolour and embroidery on canvas, 141 X 80 cm.

In the work The Dolphin Valley (2019), I mimic the complex texture and biological forms of the massive sand structures in the Lut Desert, namely mega-yardangs, and test how far I can go with embroidery to evoke the pictorial quality of these natural formations. The title of this work refers to the name by which the local villagers call the part of the Lut Desert where the yardangs look like a migrating pod of the marine species. I was struck the first time I heard the name, thinking about the deep history of the Lut Desert as an aquatic environment and the uncanny coincidence with my reconceptualisation of the region.