Emirati artist Camelia Mohebi's digital art tribute to Sheikh Khalifa. Photo: Camelia Mohebi
Emirati artist Camelia Mohebi's digital art tribute to Sheikh Khalifa. Photo: Camelia Mohebi
Emirati artist Camelia Mohebi's digital art tribute to Sheikh Khalifa. Photo: Camelia Mohebi
Emirati artist Camelia Mohebi's digital art tribute to Sheikh Khalifa. Photo: Camelia Mohebi

Emirati artist Camelia Mohebi pays homage to Sheikh Khalifa with digital art


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Dubai multi-disciplinary artist Camelia Mohebi has paid tribute to Sheikh Khalifa with an experimental piece that echoes her ongoing body of work based around frequencies.

The Emirati artist says she began work on the piece a day after Sheikh Khalifa's death on Friday, and shared it on her Instagram page.

"I wanted to pay homage to our dear President," she tells The National.

Mohebi, whose first solo exhibition in Dubai, Signals, was hosted by Sotheby's this week, said the artwork took her about six hours.

"I started with a charcoal sketch, which I then scanned and put through various softwares, adding different layers," she says.

Emirati artist Camelia Mohebi held her first solo exhibition, Signals, in Dubai this week. Photo: Camelia Mohebi
Emirati artist Camelia Mohebi held her first solo exhibition, Signals, in Dubai this week. Photo: Camelia Mohebi

The patchwork of lines "is almost as if he's an energy field," she explains.

"It's to illustrate that his soul is moulded into our minds and hearts and imprinted on the collective memory of the country. The black-and-white blocks on the border signify the building blocks of the country he helped build and its history."

Mohebi also shared another artwork of Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, who was elected President of the UAE on Saturday.

Starting with a sketch and then working on a scanned image, Mohebi says she wanted to represent Sheikh Mohamed as "more current and visually strong".

"If it you look closely, it's almost like a building material or a stone or a wall. He’s basically our future, that's cast in stone... a powerhouse that we are all going to lean on," she says.

Mohebi says her interest in subliminal messaging and frequencies began more than 10 years ago while she was taking care of her ailing father, Zainal Baqer Mohebi, the late UAE businessman who founded the Baqer Mohebi chain of supermarkets.

"My dad passed away in 2019, but I spent 10 years of my life looking after him before that. He had a stroke and couldn’t speak or move or eat. The only thing he could do was hear. That's what sparked my interest in subliminal messages and frequencies," she says. "My journey began trying to help him, observing his behavioural patterns and the importance of sound."

Now a certified art therapist and Theta Healer, Mohebi works with various mediums. Her Dubai exhibition, which was shown in London earlier this year, brings together eight years of her work featuring more than 50 pieces.

"The show is a culmination of my journey, of me hoping to inspire people and give people hope, through my study of frequencies" she says. "I don't think I'm different from anyone. We are all struggling one way or the other. And my great hope is that by expressing our traumas, art can help create something beautiful and healing."

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Pox that threatens the Middle East's native species

Camelpox

Caused by a virus related to the one that causes human smallpox, camelpox typically causes fever, swelling of lymph nodes and skin lesions in camels aged over three, but the animal usually recovers after a month or so. Younger animals may develop a more acute form that causes internal lesions and diarrhoea, and is often fatal, especially when secondary infections result. It is found across the Middle East as well as in parts of Asia, Africa, Russia and India.

Falconpox

Falconpox can cause a variety of types of lesions, which can affect, for example, the eyelids, feet and the areas above and below the beak. It is a problem among captive falcons and is one of many types of avian pox or avipox diseases that together affect dozens of bird species across the world. Among the other forms are pigeonpox, turkeypox, starlingpox and canarypox. Avipox viruses are spread by mosquitoes and direct bird-to-bird contact.

Houbarapox

Houbarapox is, like falconpox, one of the many forms of avipox diseases. It exists in various forms, with a type that causes skin lesions being least likely to result in death. Other forms cause more severe lesions, including internal lesions, and are more likely to kill the bird, often because secondary infections develop. This summer the CVRL reported an outbreak of pox in houbaras after rains in spring led to an increase in mosquito numbers.

Sanju

Produced: Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Rajkumar Hirani

Director: Rajkumar Hirani

Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Vicky Kaushal, Paresh Rawal, Anushka Sharma, Manish’s Koirala, Dia Mirza, Sonam Kapoor, Jim Sarbh, Boman Irani

Rating: 3.5 stars

F1 The Movie

Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem

Director: Joseph Kosinski

Rating: 4/5

Racecard

6.30pm: The Madjani Stakes (PA) Group 3 Dh175,000 (Dirt) 1,900m

7.05pm: Maiden (TB) Dh165,000 (D) 1,400m

7.40pm: Maiden (TB) Dh165,000 (D) 1,600m

8.15pm: Handicap (TB) Dh190,000 (D) 1,200m

8.50pm: Dubai Creek Mile (TB) Listed Dh265,000 (D) 1,600m

9.25pm: Handicap (TB) Dh190,000 (D) 1,600m

The National selections

6.30pm: Chaddad

7.05pm: Down On Da Bayou

7.40pm: Mass Media

8.15pm: Rafal

8.50pm: Yulong Warrior

9.25pm: Chiefdom

Jebel Ali Dragons 26 Bahrain 23

Dragons
Tries: Hayes, Richards, Cooper
Cons: Love
Pens: Love 3

Bahrain
Tries: Kenny, Crombie, Tantoh
Cons: Phillips
Pens: Phillips 2

PROFILE OF SWVL

Started: April 2017

Founders: Mostafa Kandil, Ahmed Sabbah and Mahmoud Nouh

Based: Cairo, Egypt

Sector: transport

Size: 450 employees

Investment: approximately $80 million

Investors include: Dubai’s Beco Capital, US’s Endeavor Catalyst, China’s MSA, Egypt’s Sawari Ventures, Sweden’s Vostok New Ventures, Property Finder CEO Michael Lahyani

The years Ramadan fell in May

1987

1954

1921

1888

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Three ways to limit your social media use

Clinical psychologist, Dr Saliha Afridi at The Lighthouse Arabia suggests three easy things you can do every day to cut back on the time you spend online.

1. Put the social media app in a folder on the second or third screen of your phone so it has to remain a conscious decision to open, rather than something your fingers gravitate towards without consideration.

2. Schedule a time to use social media instead of consistently throughout the day. I recommend setting aside certain times of the day or week when you upload pictures or share information. 

3. Take a mental snapshot rather than a photo on your phone. Instead of sharing it with your social world, try to absorb the moment, connect with your feeling, experience the moment with all five of your senses. You will have a memory of that moment more vividly and for far longer than if you take a picture of it.

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