In On Belonging, seven pebble chairs and a series of straw lamps have been designed and embroidered with an unsullied Palestinian landscape in mind.
The project by 81 Designs is a collaboration between Lebanese designer Nada Debs and a group of Palestinian craftswomen living in the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp in South Lebanon.
The collection is being showcased at Abu Dhabi Art, which is running from November 17 to 21 at Manarat Al Saadiyat. The items in the collection are also for sale, with the pebble chairs going for $10,000 each and the straw lamps for $600.
On Belonging comes as part of an annual collaborative enterprise by 81 Designs, which brings together the women artisans with artists from the Mena region. The group has previously collaborated with French-Tunisian street artist eL Seed as well as the design studio Naqsh Collective from Amman.
Behind the design
When 81 Designs approached Debs for its annual collaborative enterprise, the 2021 flare-up of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was in full force.
“The Palestinian issue was very much in the news,” Debs says. “The issue about land was very prevalent at the time.”
The Sheikh Jarrah evictions and the Gaza war inspired Debs to look towards a Palestinian landscape that was bereft of Israeli roadblocks, walls, watchtowers and settlements.
More specifically, she looked to a painting by Palestinian artist Nabil Anani titled In Pursuit of Utopia. The painting features stratified vistas with neon green hills, amber lakes and turquoise fields. It depicts a non-existent place, a utopic Palestine wrought by childhood memories and dreams.
“We decided to have seven chairs and each chair has part of the landscape in Anani’s painting,” Debs says. She sought permission from the artist to use the painting as inspiration for the project. “He loved the idea,” she says.
The challenges
For On Belonging, Debs says she wanted to take the women artisans out of their comfort zone. Experts of the traditional tatreez, she wanted the women to try new stitching techniques and work on new materials.
“We first gave them free canvas,” she says. “We worked on some techniques and took into consideration what they can do. And then we asked them to do something a little bit more than what they usually do. We wanted to experiment with other embroidery techniques.”
“The idea was to take the typical Palestinian embroidery and doing it on a much harder material. In this case, straw or woven cane.”
The lamps, as well as the backs of the bulbous pebble chairs, are all made of woven cane stitched with designs reminiscent of Anani’s painting.
“Working with the material was really difficult because it isn’t malleable, it’s really stiff. So the women had to work with these big frame boards, which was a little bit complicated.”
As the designs began to find form and were halfway to completion, Debs saw she wasn’t happy with how the project was turning out.
“I didn’t like it,” she says. “I took a weekend to embroider on my own to understand the effect that I wanted. I didn’t want the designs to be flat, but to have a sense of degradation. The landscape goes from dark green to light, the sky from blue to light blue. So I worked on it myself and brought the women to my art studio in Gemmayzeh and we worked on it together.
The women, Debs says, not only became proficient in the novel embroidery approach but began adding their idiosyncrasies and artistic flair to the technique.
“Each of the chairs is named after the woman who made them,” Debs says. “You can see each of their personalities come up in the pieces. Some of them are creative, while others are more safe.”
Lebanon’s ongoing economic and political woes were also an impediment to the project. Gas shortages and rampant electricity cuts meant the women couldn’t work after nightfall and had to get as much done as they could during the day.
“I tried working at home when I was practising on my own,” Debs says. “Even the smaller lamps were hard to work with, with little light. We really had to speed up the process. We were really panicking at one point – especially when we had to start over again. But we are so happy we managed to do it in time.”
An exploration of identity
The collection’s title, On Belonging, stems from Deb’s multicultural background. The Lebanese designer grew up in Japan, studied design at the Rhode Island School of Design in the US, and has “spent a significant time travelling the world, finding connections between different cultures.”
“Belonging is a term I use all the time and all my work is based on it,” she says. “I grew up in Japan, in an environment that was not Arab and not Muslim, and I always felt left out. My sense of belonging was coming back to Lebanon, trying to know my roots and yearning to belong somewhere. I wanted to belong in a group, in a community. In Japan, we didn’t have that so much.”
Debs says she found a sense of community while working with the women artisans. Their collaborative effort, Debs adds, resonated with the project’s theme.
“It was really nice working together. That sense of community was nice,” she says. “The term belonging came up often. While the women were working, they often spoke about going back to their land, to Palestine. They felt like when they were embroidering, they were dreaming of the land they were going back to.”
Modernising and preserving tatreez
Nadine Y Maalouf, co-founder of 81 Designs, says she established the organisation in 2015 with her mother, Nesrine El Tibi Maalouf, as a way of preserving and modernising the Palestinian craft of tatreez.
“Each year, we collaborate with a different artist from the region to challenge as well as provide a new platform to showcase the talents of the women we work with.”
“When we approached Nada, it was not just because she’s incredible at what she does. She’s always challenged how materials work together.”
“This edition was produced specifically for Abu Dhabi Art,” Maalouf says. “I think what drives a lot of the purchases from our booth during Abu Dhabi Art is that they are unique pieces and you are buying something that is extra special for your home, for you to enjoy aesthetically as well as something that’s functional.”
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Rating: 4/5
Directed by: Joseph Kosinski
Starring: Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Ed Harris
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH
Directed by: Shaka King
Starring: Daniel Kaluuya, Lakeith Stanfield, Jesse Plemons
Four stars
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Labour dispute
The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law
THE TWIN BIO
Their favourite city: Dubai
Their favourite food: Khaleeji
Their favourite past-time : walking on the beach
Their favorite quote: ‘we rise by lifting others’ by Robert Ingersoll
Premier League results
Saturday
Crystal Palace 1 Brighton & Hove Albion 2
Cardiff City 2 West Ham United 0
Huddersfield Town 0 Bournemouth 2
Leicester City 3 Fulham 1
Newcastle United 3 Everton 2
Southampton 2 Tottenham Hotspur 1
Manchester City 3 Watford 1
Sunday
Liverpool 4 Burnley 2
Chelsea 1 Wolverhampton Wanderers 1
Arsenal 2 Manchester United 0
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
Price, base / as tested: Dh182,178
Engine: 3.7-litre V6
Power: 350hp @ 7,400rpm
Torque: 374Nm @ 5,200rpm
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 10.5L / 100km
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Defence review at a glance
• Increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 but given “turbulent times it may be necessary to go faster”
• Prioritise a shift towards working with AI and autonomous systems
• Invest in the resilience of military space systems.
• Number of active reserves should be increased by 20%
• More F-35 fighter jets required in the next decade
• New “hybrid Navy” with AUKUS submarines and autonomous vessels
Emiratisation at work
Emiratisation was introduced in the UAE more than 10 years ago
It aims to boost the number of citizens in the workforce particularly in the private sector.
Growing the number of Emiratis in the workplace will help the UAE reduce dependence on overseas workers
The Cabinet in December last year, approved a national fund for Emirati jobseekers and guaranteed citizens working in the private sector a comparable pension
President Sheikh Khalifa has described Emiratisation as “a true measure for success”.
During the UAE’s 48th National Day, Sheikh Khalifa named education, entrepreneurship, Emiratisation and space travel among cornerstones of national development
More than 80 per cent of Emiratis work in the federal or local government as per 2017 statistics
The Emiratisation programme includes the creation of 20,000 new jobs for UAE citizens
UAE citizens will be given priority in managerial positions in the government sphere
The purpose is to raise the contribution of UAE nationals in the job market and create a diverse workforce of citizens
Company%20profile
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Gothia Cup 2025
4,872 matches
1,942 teams
116 pitches
76 nations
26 UAE teams
15 Lebanese teams
2 Kuwaiti teams
Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
Vikram%20Vedha
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirectors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Gayatri%2C%20Pushkar%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Hrithik%20Roshan%2C%20Saif%20Ali%20Khan%2C%20Radhika%20Apte%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%C2%A0%3C%2Fstrong%3E3.5%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
What it means to be a conservationist
Who is Enric Sala?
Enric Sala is an expert on marine conservation and is currently the National Geographic Society's Explorer-in-Residence. His love of the sea started with his childhood in Spain, inspired by the example of the legendary diver Jacques Cousteau. He has been a university professor of Oceanography in the US, as well as working at the Spanish National Council for Scientific Research and is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Biodiversity and the Bio-Economy. He has dedicated his life to protecting life in the oceans. Enric describes himself as a flexitarian who only eats meat occasionally.
What is biodiversity?
According to the United Nations Environment Programme, all life on earth – including in its forests and oceans – forms a “rich tapestry of interconnecting and interdependent forces”. Biodiversity on earth today is the product of four billion years of evolution and consists of many millions of distinct biological species. The term ‘biodiversity’ is relatively new, popularised since the 1980s and coinciding with an understanding of the growing threats to the natural world including habitat loss, pollution and climate change. The loss of biodiversity itself is dangerous because it contributes to clean, consistent water flows, food security, protection from floods and storms and a stable climate. The natural world can be an ally in combating global climate change but to do so it must be protected. Nations are working to achieve this, including setting targets to be reached by 2020 for the protection of the natural state of 17 per cent of the land and 10 per cent of the oceans. However, these are well short of what is needed, according to experts, with half the land needed to be in a natural state to help avert disaster.
Know before you go
- Jebel Akhdar is a two-hour drive from Muscat airport or a six-hour drive from Dubai. It’s impossible to visit by car unless you have a 4x4. Phone ahead to the hotel to arrange a transfer.
- If you’re driving, make sure your insurance covers Oman.
- By air: Budget airlines Air Arabia, Flydubai and SalamAir offer direct routes to Muscat from the UAE.
- Tourists from the Emirates (UAE nationals not included) must apply for an Omani visa online before arrival at evisa.rop.gov.om. The process typically takes several days.
- Flash floods are probable due to the terrain and a lack of drainage. Always check the weather before venturing into any canyons or other remote areas and identify a plan of escape that includes high ground, shelter and parking where your car won’t be overtaken by sudden downpours.
Bio
Born in Dubai in 1994
Her father is a retired Emirati police officer and her mother is originally from Kuwait
She Graduated from the American University of Sharjah in 2015 and is currently working on her Masters in Communication from the University of Sharjah.
Her favourite film is Pacific Rim, directed by Guillermo del Toro
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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THE APPRENTICE
Director: Ali Abbasi
Starring: Sebastian Stan, Maria Bakalova, Jeremy Strong
Rating: 3/5
'Brazen'
Director: Monika Mitchell
Starring: Alyssa Milano, Sam Page, Colleen Wheeler
Rating: 3/5
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
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Eyasses squad
Charlie Preston (captain) – goal shooter/ goalkeeper (Dubai College)
Arushi Holt (vice-captain) – wing defence / centre (Jumeriah English Speaking School)
Olivia Petricola (vice-captain) – centre / wing attack (Dubai English Speaking College)
Isabel Affley – goalkeeper / goal defence (Dubai English Speaking College)
Jemma Eley – goal attack / wing attack (Dubai College)
Alana Farrell-Morton – centre / wing / defence / wing attack (Nord Anglia International School)
Molly Fuller – goal attack / wing attack (Dubai College)
Caitlin Gowdy – goal defence / wing defence (Dubai English Speaking College)
Noorulain Hussain – goal defence / wing defence (Dubai College)
Zahra Hussain-Gillani – goal defence / goalkeeper (British School Al Khubairat)
Claire Janssen – goal shooter / goal attack (Jumeriah English Speaking School)
Eliza Petricola – wing attack / centre (Dubai English Speaking College)
If you go
Flight connections to Ulaanbaatar are available through a variety of hubs, including Seoul and Beijing, with airlines including Mongolian Airlines and Korean Air. While some nationalities, such as Americans, don’t need a tourist visa for Mongolia, others, including UAE citizens, can obtain a visa on arrival, while others including UK citizens, need to obtain a visa in advance. Contact the Mongolian Embassy in the UAE for more information.
Nomadic Road offers expedition-style trips to Mongolia in January and August, and other destinations during most other months. Its nine-day August 2020 Mongolia trip will cost from $5,250 per person based on two sharing, including airport transfers, two nights’ hotel accommodation in Ulaanbaatar, vehicle rental, fuel, third party vehicle liability insurance, the services of a guide and support team, accommodation, food and entrance fees; nomadicroad.com
A fully guided three-day, two-night itinerary at Three Camel Lodge costs from $2,420 per person based on two sharing, including airport transfers, accommodation, meals and excursions including the Yol Valley and Flaming Cliffs. A return internal flight from Ulaanbaatar to Dalanzadgad costs $300 per person and the flight takes 90 minutes each way; threecamellodge.com
