25°22’08.6”N 56°02’57.7”E.
These are the co-ordinates to an “abandoned” infant sculpture that suddenly appeared in Fujairah at the end of last year.
Carved from white marble, the baby is curled up as if in slumber, its eyes closed and lips turned down. It is laid out, exposed to the elements, on the bare ground, surrounded by the rocky Fujairah mountains. Over the weeks, visitors have made the trek to seek out the sculpture – its location remains tricky to pinpoint despite the help of maps – after seeing it on social media.
Jago, the artist behind the work, first conceived of it in 2019 while he was living in New York City. “I saw a lot of homeless people living in the streets. When you have to run around every day to go to work, at some point, those people just disappear and become part of the environment. But I think the image of a baby will push us to stop and do something,” he tells The National.
That same year, he returned to Italy, and it wasn’t until 2020, after Covid-19 struck, that the sculpture was realised. Seeing the effects of lockdown on the vulnerable and the poor, including the homeless, Jago returned to the idea of an infant, a figure that easily connotes vulnerability and helplessness. Within eight months, he made Look Down (a play on “lockdown”), a baby in fetal position with a chain cuffed to its wrist.
In his works, the sculptor, who was born in Italy, draws from personal reflection, but uses recognisable figures and motifs to express his ideas. With clay and marble as his materials of choice, he moulds and carves sculptures that have a hint of the grotesque, from models of anatomical hearts to ghostly figures shrouded in cloth, and even a baby nestled inside the cracked skull of a male bust.
Look Down rested in the Piazza del Plebiscito, a public square in Naples, where the artist resides. It was installed in late 2020, as Italy was tightening its restrictions again owing to the second wave of Covid-19 in Europe.
People touched it, and also destroyed it in some ways, so the sculpture changed
Jago,
artist
Part of the artist’s intention was not only to capture the attention of passers-by, but also to allow viewers to consider what they might have grown to overlook over time and the sections of society that the pandemic has hit the hardest.
Over the course of six months, public interaction with Look Down grew. “When you ‘abandon’ something on the street, it’s not yours anymore. You have to accept that everyone can use or interact with the sculpture in different ways. People touched it, and also destroyed it in some ways, so the sculpture changed. It’s like having a child that eventually has to live in the world and be affected by it,” he says.
When restrictions finally eased, Jago removed the sculpture from the plaza and began thinking about another place for the work. This time, he wanted a location that was more distant and harder to reach.
He thought back to his trip in Fujairah years ago. “It’s a very particular place because you can find mountains and the desert together. You have the sea, mountains and desert, but the sands don’t change as much, because the mountains protect it from the wind,” he says.
Co-ordinating with the Fujairah government, the artist was able to install his work at the base of the mountains of Al Haniyah desert, where it is meant to stay until March before being moved to a permanent location that will be revealed later on. Exposed to wind, rain and sun, the sculpture will eventually be altered and blemished, but the artist says he now sees these changes as part of the work.
With its new location, the work also earned a new name, Look Here. This time around, the artist sought a place that would be less accessible, so that the act of seeing the infant would become more intentional, deliberate.
“If you leave something in the desert and someone spends time and energy to go see it, to take a picture, it means a lot. For someone to do that means that he recognises something about himself in the work, in the image. There’s a connection,” he explains.
There is one significant change to the work from its previous iteration in Naples: the chain is gone. The artist, however, did not comment on the reason behind this decision except to say, “sometimes things happen and we have to accept it”.
Jago, however, says the message of the work remains the same: to compel the public to think about the most vulnerable among us and to cultivate a response of care as we would towards a child. But he also hopes the experience of finding and seeing Look Here among the mountains opens up the public’s imagination and outlook on the world.
“Humanity is curious. Humanity wants to participate and see something new. This is a primordial part of us. When we’re babies, we have something very powerful, we have curiosity and enthusiasm, but as we grow, we lose that. But we need it in our work, our lives. This is our power."
Buy farm-fresh food
The UAE is stepping up its game when it comes to platforms for local farms to show off and sell their produce.
In Dubai, visit Emirati Farmers Souq at The Pointe every Saturday from 8am to 2pm, which has produce from Al Ammar Farm, Omar Al Katri Farm, Hikarivege Vegetables, Rashed Farms and Al Khaleej Honey Trading, among others.
In Sharjah, the Aljada residential community will launch a new outdoor farmers’ market every Friday starting this weekend. Manbat will be held from 3pm to 8pm, and will host 30 farmers, local home-grown entrepreneurs and food stalls from the teams behind Badia Farms; Emirates Hydroponics Farms; Modern Organic Farm; Revolution Real; Astraea Farms; and Al Khaleej Food.
In Abu Dhabi, order farm produce from Food Crowd, an online grocery platform that supplies fresh and organic ingredients directly from farms such as Emirates Bio Farm, TFC, Armela Farms and mother company Al Dahra.
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THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Veil (Object Lessons)
Rafia Zakaria
Bloomsbury Academic
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Grubtech
Founders: Mohamed Al Fayed and Mohammed Hammedi
Launched: October 2019
Employees: 50
Financing stage: Seed round (raised $2 million)
Results
Light Flyweight (49kg): Mirzakhmedov Nodirjon (UZB) beat Daniyal Sabit (KAZ) by points 5-0.
Flyweight (52kg): Zoirov Shakhobidin (UZB) beat Amit Panghol (IND) 3-2.
Bantamweight (56kg): Kharkhuu Enkh-Amar (MGL) beat Mirazizbek Mirzahalilov (UZB) 3-2.
Lightweight (60kg): Erdenebat Tsendbaatar (MGL) beat Daniyal Shahbakhsh (IRI) 5-0.
Light Welterweight (64kg): Baatarsukh Chinzorig (MGL) beat Shiva Thapa (IND) 3-2.
Welterweight (69kg): Bobo-Usmon Baturov (UZB) beat Ablaikhan Zhussupov (KAZ) RSC round-1.
Middleweight (75kg): Jafarov Saidjamshid (UZB) beat Abilkhan Amankul (KAZ) 4-1.
Light Heavyweight (81kg): Ruzmetov Dilshodbek (UZB) beat Meysam Gheshlaghi (IRI) 3-2.
Heavyweight (91kg): Sanjeet (IND) beat Vassiliy Levit (KAZ) 4-1.
Super Heavyweight ( 91kg): Jalolov Bakhodir (UZB) beat Kamshibek Kunkabayev (KAZ) 5-0.
About Krews
Founder: Ahmed Al Qubaisi
Based: Abu Dhabi
Founded: January 2019
Number of employees: 10
Sector: Technology/Social media
Funding to date: Estimated $300,000 from Hub71 in-kind support
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Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
Power: 254hp
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Lampedusa: Gateway to Europe
Pietro Bartolo and Lidia Tilotta
Quercus
The specs
BMW M8 Competition Coupe
Engine 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8
Power 625hp at 6,000rpm
Torque 750Nm from 1,800-5,800rpm
Gearbox Eight-speed paddleshift auto
Acceleration 0-100kph in 3.2 sec
Top speed 305kph
Fuel economy, combined 10.6L / 100km
Price from Dh700,000 (estimate)
On sale Jan/Feb 2020
