Q. But does your role restrict what you can do as an artist?

A. Of course. My new show in London, I could not show it here in Riyadh. Or I could show it, but it would be limited in some way, directed. But, at the end of the day, I have [the government’s] approval. After 23 years, they admitted that I’m an artist. I think for around 10 years there was a lot of pressure on me. Even from my family. My father and my mother, they’re not used to it.

Q. What’s in your show in London?

A. There is a new piece — it’s a huge stamp sculpture that reads: “In accordance with Sharia Law.” And if you come to Saudi Arabia, you will see this stamp everywhere, even on bank loans. That’s why it’s in the exhibition: We are in 2013 and they’re still treating us with a 1,400-year-old law without any development in it. And the people, they just believe it. They see the stamp and think they are doing the right thing and then maybe they get stuck with a loan they can’t repay. So I’m trying to produce a kind of image that will jump from mind to my mind in a whole society in a minute.

Q. How did you become an artist?

A. I grew up in a small village in the southern region of Saudi Arabia. My father was a farmer. The main thing that changed my life was the Internet. In the late 1990s, I remember standing in front of the monitor for nine hours at a time. I was a classic painter, just doing watercolor paintings. Suddenly I’m looking at all these artists, all these museums, you know, how artists conveyed their opinions in New York, in China, how brave they were.

Q. What type of work were you doing?

A. There was no gallery to show my work. So, I thought, I’m going to do a performance in the main street of my village. I was around 21. At the beginning people thought I was crazy. Everyone in the village knows me, my family, that I’m enlisted in the army. But there were these non-native trees that were destroying the ecosystem in my village. So I wrapped myself and the tree in plastic and breathed only from the oxygen from the tree. People started to talk — “What is this guy doing?” But they also got involved in the performance, and started to suggest what to do about the problem. That kind reaction motivates me even now.