When Sultan Al Qassemi was invited to teach a class at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, the founder of the Barjeel Art Foundation saw an opportunity to implement a unique educational exercise.
SOAS is renowned for having its own purpose-built modern gallery space, a distinct feature in London’s pedagogical landscape. This inspired Al Qassemi into refashioning his class into a workshop, which culminated with SOAS students curating an exhibition that featured works from the foundation’s collection.
The exhibition, Hudood: Rethinking Boundaries, running until September 21, is a landmark event for the Barjeel Art Foundation. It marks the first time that a show by the institution has been dedicated to Arab artworks produced from 1990 onwards.
Several factors inspired the focus on contemporary art, Al Qassemi says. Just last year, the Barjeel Art Foundation staged an exhibition at the Christie’s head office in London. The exhibition, titled Kawkaba, presented highlights from the foundation’s robust collection of modern Arab art. As such, Al Qassemi says he wanted to shift the focus to feature the contemporary works from the foundation that are “less seen by the public”.
“I should also say that most of these students are concerned about contemporary events,” Al Qassemi says. “I felt that this is important for them to engage with current events.”
Hudood: Rethinking Boundaries presents more than 40 works by Arab artists that were produced from 1990 onwards. These include a number of notable names, including Mona Hatoum, Hayv Kahraman, Larissa Sansour, Ahmed Mater, Manal Al Dowayan and Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim.
After weeks of readings, classroom discussions and guest lectures, the students pored through the foundation’s collection of contemporary artworks. The exhibition was a way to apply what they had learnt during the workshop. Yet, selecting works was not a straightforward task.
While the Barjeel Art Foundation is well known for its sprawling body of modern Arab art, it also has more than 700 contemporary works. “We were sifting through so much,” SOAS student Chloe-Kate Abel says. “The initial approach was to choose a set of five to eight works that we were drawn to. From there, we sort of came up with, a more cohesive theme that we could synthesise all the works within.”
The thematic thread that the students drew becomes clear when considering the exhibition’s title and its artworks. Hudood, which translates from Arabic to borders, examines issues related to belonging and the identities that seek to transcend the boundaries imposed upon them. These topics are addressed in various fronts, from the material and architectural to the metaphysical.
In Here and Now 2, for instance, Bashar Alhroub examines the tensions of being a Palestinian who has moved abroad.
The artist began the Here and Now series in 2010, when he was a student at the Winchester School of Art. He had sought to visually evoke the schism he felt after he relocated to the UK, where he was no longer subject to the Israeli checkpoints and travel restrictions he faced in Palestine.
The series features photographs of himself in landscapes with his head encased in a mirrored cube. In Here and Now 2, he is laying on a forest path, presumably at a park in the UK, with the cube reflecting the discoloured leaves on the ground. His body is anchored in the landscape. His mind, on the other hand, is elsewhere.
“We spoke about this concept of identity, and how, as a Palestinian artist, that is such an important theme to hold on to,” says student Safa Kamran, who interviewed Alhroub as part of Hudood’s research process and the exhibition’s accompanying publication.
Alhroub’s works have become more explicitly related to Palestinian issues since the Israel-Gaza war began in October. Here and Now 2 is more subtle, but still presents a facet of that tension, particularly reflecting the diasporic anxiety of existing in the present, while still embodying the identity and social issues of a homeland left behind.
“He kind of makes the point of not making Palestinian identity a main focus of his artworks, especially in his older work,” Kamran says. “He said that he didn't want to focus on that aspect of identity previously, but now he does.”
While Alhroub’s Here and Now 2 touches upon more nebulous notions of identity and the struggle for self-realisation in the face of borders, there are works within Hudood that address these issues in material terms. “When I was looking through the works [in the collection], two stood out to me the most, which is what my what my essay is about,” says student Shamsa Alnahyan.
Concrete Block II by Saudi artist Abdulnasser Gharem and Die Wahrheit Ist Konkret (The Truth is Concrete) by Egyptian artist Ganzeer address the implications of concrete but in very different ways.
“I grew up in Dubai, and my whole life I've been, you know, kind of surrounded by all these concrete structures,” Alnahyan says. “Concrete was something that was always safe for me to be in. But then, concrete has also been used in not so positive ways … it creates apartheid walls. It creates refugee camps.”
In her essay, Alnahyan delves into how Gharem and Ganzeer reveal these qualities in their works. Concrete Block II recreates a roadblock using plywood. The surface of the work is covered in rubber stamps that hark back to the time Gharem was as a major in the Saudi army.
“As he sat on his desk for hours on end, the stamp became his weapon,” Alnahyan writes in her essay. “It was a gavel of sorts, stamping countless official documents in a binary manner: ‘stamp’ or ‘no-stamp’. Through this action, there is no in-between.”
The artwork highlights how concrete is utilised to fortify and materialise intangible boundaries. “It is a boundary building medium that is very much controlled by who wields it,” Alnahyan says. “If what's in their heart and what's in their mind is to control, block and censor. It's what they're going to use it for.”
While Ganzeer imparts a similar message, he does so in a very different way. In Die Wahrheit Ist Konkret, concrete is reclaimed as a tool for public interests. The work features a civilian armed with an outline of a rifle. He is smoking a cigarette and staring defiantly back at the viewer. The work’s title is sprayed in the foreground as graffiti.
The divisive power of construction echoes throughout several works in the exhibition. In Kader Attia’s Zene 4, the Algerian-French artist presents a cluster of apartment buildings hovering above a white space. The work alludes, Abel says, to the concrete modernist structures that are built on the outskirts of major French cities.
“Attia himself actually grew up in these buildings,” Abel says. “Zene 4 owes its name to being built on what’s called La Zone. Those [buildings] were actually where the medieval walls of Paris were once built. It then became this liminal space in this periphery zone where actually most of the immigrants coming from France’s former colonies are relegated to live. And it comes into this question of who can be French and who can’t.”
The work is displayed in conversation with Algerian artist Aicha Haddad’s Ghardaia, which is one of the two older pieces within Hudood. While the latter is colourfully rendered with thickly-set oil, Attia’s collage is starkly presented in monochrome, alluding to how the vibrancy of a culture is sapped in such housing projects.
Finally, Hudood brings its exploration of identity back to the Gulf region, and specifically Dubai, a city that student Elika Blake says “sits in this kind of liminal space between being extremely modern and also a traditional society. This condition argues that the society doesn't have to be either or, but can be both of those things at once”.
Several artworks by artists from the UAE reflect upon this in the exhibition. Some juxtapose the country’s concurrent nature of tradition and modernity explicitly, including Lateefa bint Maktoum’s Oral Tradition and Reem Al Ghaith’s photograph Frame 4 from her Held Back series.
Others take a more metaphoric approach, such as Farah Al Qasimi’s photograph Landfill Flowers. The landscape in the background is “foregrounded by this kind of new growth and this idea of prosperity,” Blake says. “This kind of contrast that was present in a lot of the works that I selected.”
Barjeel Art Foundation's Hudood: Rethinking Boundaries is running at the SOAS Gallery until September 21
Scores
Bournemouth 0-4 Liverpool
Arsenal 1-0 Huddersfield Town
Burnley 1-0 Brighton
Manchester United 4-1 Fulham
West Ham 3-2 Crystal Palace
Saturday fixtures:
Chelsea v Manchester City, 9.30pm (UAE)
Leicester City v Tottenham Hotspur, 11.45pm (UAE)
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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JOKE'S%20ON%20YOU
%3Cp%3EGoogle%20wasn't%20new%20to%20busting%20out%20April%20Fool's%20jokes%3A%20before%20the%20Gmail%20%22prank%22%2C%20it%20tricked%20users%20with%20%3Ca%20href%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Farchive.google%2Fmentalplex%2F%22%20target%3D%22_blank%22%3Emind-reading%20MentalPlex%20responses%3C%2Fa%3E%20and%20said%3Ca%20href%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Farchive.google%2Fpigeonrank%2F%22%20target%3D%22_blank%22%3E%20well-fed%20pigeons%20were%20running%20its%20search%20engine%20operations%3C%2Fa%3E%20.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EIn%20subsequent%20years%2C%20they%20announced%20home%20internet%20services%20through%20your%20toilet%20with%20its%20%22%3Ca%20href%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Farchive.google%2Ftisp%2Finstall.html%22%20target%3D%22_blank%22%3Epatented%20GFlush%20system%3C%2Fa%3E%22%2C%20made%20us%20believe%20the%20Moon's%20surface%20was%20made%20of%20cheese%20and%20unveiled%20a%20dating%20service%20in%20which%20they%20called%20founders%20Sergey%20Brin%20and%20Larry%20Page%20%22%3Ca%20href%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Farchive.google%2Fromance%2Fpress.html%22%20target%3D%22_blank%22%3EStanford%20PhD%20wannabes%3C%2Fa%3E%20%22.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EBut%20Gmail%20was%20all%20too%20real%2C%20purportedly%20inspired%20by%20one%20%E2%80%93%20a%20single%20%E2%80%93%20Google%20user%20complaining%20about%20the%20%22poor%20quality%20of%20existing%20email%20services%22%20and%20born%20%22%3Ca%20href%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Fgooglepress.blogspot.com%2F2004%2F04%2Fgoogle-gets-message-launches-gmail.html%22%20target%3D%22_blank%22%3Emillions%20of%20M%26amp%3BMs%20later%3C%2Fa%3E%22.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
If you go:
The flights: Etihad, Emirates, British Airways and Virgin all fly from the UAE to London from Dh2,700 return, including taxes
The tours: The Tour for Muggles usually runs several times a day, lasts about two-and-a-half hours and costs £14 (Dh67)
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is on now at the Palace Theatre. Tickets need booking significantly in advance
Entrance to the Harry Potter exhibition at the House of MinaLima is free
The hotel: The grand, 1909-built Strand Palace Hotel is in a handy location near the Theatre District and several of the key Harry Potter filming and inspiration sites. The family rooms are spacious, with sofa beds that can accommodate children, and wooden shutters that keep out the light at night. Rooms cost from £170 (Dh808).
The Details
Kabir Singh
Produced by: Cinestaan Studios, T-Series
Directed by: Sandeep Reddy Vanga
Starring: Shahid Kapoor, Kiara Advani, Suresh Oberoi, Soham Majumdar, Arjun Pahwa
Rating: 2.5/5
LA LIGA FIXTURES
Friday
Granada v Real Betis (9.30pm)
Valencia v Levante (midnight)
Saturday
Espanyol v Alaves (4pm)
Celta Vigo v Villarreal (7pm)
Leganes v Real Valladolid (9.30pm)
Mallorca v Barcelona (midnight)
Sunday
Atletic Bilbao v Atletico Madrid (4pm)
Real Madrid v Eibar (9.30pm)
Real Sociedad v Osasuna (midnight)
Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
HAEMOGLOBIN DISORDERS EXPLAINED
Thalassaemia is part of a family of genetic conditions affecting the blood known as haemoglobin disorders.
Haemoglobin is a substance in the red blood cells that carries oxygen and a lack of it triggers anemia, leaving patients very weak, short of breath and pale.
The most severe type of the condition is typically inherited when both parents are carriers. Those patients often require regular blood transfusions - about 450 of the UAE's 2,000 thalassaemia patients - though frequent transfusions can lead to too much iron in the body and heart and liver problems.
The condition mainly affects people of Mediterranean, South Asian, South-East Asian and Middle Eastern origin. Saudi Arabia recorded 45,892 cases of carriers between 2004 and 2014.
A World Health Organisation study estimated that globally there are at least 950,000 'new carrier couples' every year and annually there are 1.33 million at-risk pregnancies.
THE SPECS
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylinder turbo
Power: 275hp at 6,600rpm
Torque: 353Nm from 1,450-4,700rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch auto
Top speed: 250kph
Fuel consumption: 6.8L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: Dh146,999
23-man shortlist for next six Hall of Fame inductees
Tony Adams, David Beckham, Dennis Bergkamp, Sol Campbell, Eric Cantona, Andrew Cole, Ashley Cole, Didier Drogba, Les Ferdinand, Rio Ferdinand, Robbie Fowler, Steven Gerrard, Roy Keane, Frank Lampard, Matt Le Tissier, Michael Owen, Peter Schmeichel, Paul Scholes, John Terry, Robin van Persie, Nemanja Vidic, Patrick Viera, Ian Wright.
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
The%20specs
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LAST-16 EUROPA LEAGUE FIXTURES
Wednesday (Kick-offs UAE)
FC Copenhagen (0) v Istanbul Basaksehir (1) 8.55pm
Shakhtar Donetsk (2) v Wolfsburg (1) 8.55pm
Inter Milan v Getafe (one leg only) 11pm
Manchester United (5) v LASK (0) 11pm
Thursday
Bayer Leverkusen (3) v Rangers (1) 8.55pm
Sevilla v Roma (one leg only) 8.55pm
FC Basel (3) v Eintracht Frankfurt (0) 11pm
Wolves (1) Olympiakos (1) 11pm
CREW
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ERajesh%20A%20Krishnan%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ETabu%2C%20Kareena%20Kapoor%20Khan%2C%20Kriti%20Sanon%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203.5%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
WORLD RECORD FEES FOR GOALKEEPERS
1) Kepa Arrizabalaga, Athletic Bilbao to Chelsea (£72m)
2) Alisson, Roma to Liverpool (£67m)
3) Ederson, Benfica to Manchester City (£35m)
4) Gianluigi Buffon, Parma to Juventus (£33m)
5) Angelo Peruzzi, Inter Milan to Lazio (£15.7m
Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha
Starring: Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Shantanu Maheshwari, Jimmy Shergill, Saiee Manjrekar
Director: Neeraj Pandey
Rating: 2.5/5
Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
What are the GCSE grade equivalents?
- Grade 9 = above an A*
- Grade 8 = between grades A* and A
- Grade 7 = grade A
- Grade 6 = just above a grade B
- Grade 5 = between grades B and C
- Grade 4 = grade C
- Grade 3 = between grades D and E
- Grade 2 = between grades E and F
- Grade 1 = between grades F and G
BMW M5 specs
Engine: 4.4-litre twin-turbo V-8 petrol enging with additional electric motor
Power: 727hp
Torque: 1,000Nm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 10.6L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh650,000
How it works
A $10 hand-powered LED light and battery bank
Device is operated by hand cranking it at any time during the day or night
The charge is stored inside a battery
The ratio is that for every minute you crank, it provides 10 minutes light on the brightest mode
A full hand wound charge is of 16.5minutes
This gives 1.1 hours of light on high mode or 2.5 hours of light on low mode
When more light is needed, it can be recharged by winding again
The larger version costs between $18-20 and generates more than 15 hours of light with a 45-minute charge
No limit on how many times you can charge
'Will%20of%20the%20People'
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UK%20record%20temperature
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Tailors and retailers miss out on back-to-school rush
Tailors and retailers across the city said it was an ominous start to what is usually a busy season for sales.
With many parents opting to continue home learning for their children, the usual rush to buy school uniforms was muted this year.
“So far we have taken about 70 to 80 orders for items like shirts and trousers,” said Vikram Attrai, manager at Stallion Bespoke Tailors in Dubai.
“Last year in the same period we had about 200 orders and lots of demand.
“We custom fit uniform pieces and use materials such as cotton, wool and cashmere.
“Depending on size, a white shirt with logo is priced at about Dh100 to Dh150 and shorts, trousers, skirts and dresses cost between Dh150 to Dh250 a piece.”
A spokesman for Threads, a uniform shop based in Times Square Centre Dubai, said customer footfall had slowed down dramatically over the past few months.
“Now parents have the option to keep children doing online learning they don’t need uniforms so it has quietened down.”
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
UAE squad
Esha Oza (captain), Al Maseera Jahangir, Emily Thomas, Heena Hotchandani, Indhuja Nandakumar, Katie Thompson, Lavanya Keny, Mehak Thakur, Michelle Botha, Rinitha Rajith, Samaira Dharnidharka, Siya Gokhale, Sashikala Silva, Suraksha Kotte, Theertha Satish (wicketkeeper) Udeni Kuruppuarachchige, Vaishnave Mahesh.
UAE tour of Zimbabwe
All matches in Bulawayo
Friday, Sept 26 – First ODI
Sunday, Sept 28 – Second ODI
Tuesday, Sept 30 – Third ODI
Thursday, Oct 2 – Fourth ODI
Sunday, Oct 5 – First T20I
Monday, Oct 6 – Second T20I
Listen to Extra Time
Company Profile
Company name: NutriCal
Started: 2019
Founder: Soniya Ashar
Based: Dubai
Industry: Food Technology
Initial investment: Self-funded undisclosed amount
Future plan: Looking to raise fresh capital and expand in Saudi Arabia
Total Clients: Over 50
NBA FINALS SO FAR
(Toronto lead 3-2 in best-of-seven series)
Game 1 Raptors 118 Warriors 109
Game 2 Raptors 104 Warriors 109
Game 3 Warriors 109 Raptors 123
Game 4 Warriors 92 Raptors 105
Game 5 Raptors 105 Warriors 106
Game 6 Thursday, at Oakland
Game 7 Sunday, at Toronto (if needed)
What the law says
Micro-retirement is not a recognised concept or employment status under Federal Decree Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Labour Relations (as amended) (UAE Labour Law). As such, it reflects a voluntary work-life balance practice, rather than a recognised legal employment category, according to Dilini Loku, senior associate for law firm Gateley Middle East.
“Some companies may offer formal sabbatical policies or career break programmes; however, beyond such arrangements, there is no automatic right or statutory entitlement to extended breaks,” she explains.
“Any leave taken beyond statutory entitlements, such as annual leave, is typically regarded as unpaid leave in accordance with Article 33 of the UAE Labour Law. While employees may legally take unpaid leave, such requests are subject to the employer’s discretion and require approval.”
If an employee resigns to pursue micro-retirement, the employment contract is terminated, and the employer is under no legal obligation to rehire the employee in the future unless specific contractual agreements are in place (such as return-to-work arrangements), which are generally uncommon, Ms Loku adds.
ETFs explained
Exhchange traded funds are bought and sold like shares, but operate as index-tracking funds, passively following their chosen indices, such as the S&P 500, FTSE 100 and the FTSE All World, plus a vast range of smaller exchanges and commodities, such as gold, silver, copper sugar, coffee and oil.
ETFs have zero upfront fees and annual charges as low as 0.07 per cent a year, which means you get to keep more of your returns, as actively managed funds can charge as much as 1.5 per cent a year.
There are thousands to choose from, with the five biggest providers BlackRock’s iShares range, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisors SPDR ETFs, Deutsche Bank AWM X-trackers and Invesco PowerShares.
ADCC AFC Women’s Champions League Group A fixtures
October 3: v Wuhan Jiangda Women’s FC
October 6: v Hyundai Steel Red Angels Women’s FC
October 9: v Sabah FA
